Explore the vast range of titles available.

The rise of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms has become a critical issue in recent years and has promoted substantial research efforts directed to the development of more effective antimicrobial therapies utilizing different bactericidal mechanisms to neutralize infectious diseases. Modern approaches employ at least two mixed bioactive agents to enhance bactericidal effects. However, the combinations of drugs may not always show a synergistic effect, and further, could also produce adverse effects or stimulate negative outcomes. Therefore, investigations providing insights into the effective utilization of combinations of biocidal agents are of great interest. Sometimes, combination therapy is needed to avoid resistance development in difficult-to-treat infections or biofilm-associated infections treated with common biocides. Thus, this contribution reviews the literature reports discussing the usage of antimicrobial polymers along with nanomaterials or other inhibitors for the development of more potent biocidal therapies.

For centuries, healthcare has been a basic service provided by many governments to their citizens. Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a significant transformation in the quality of healthcare services provided by healthcare organizations and professionals. Recent advances have led to the emergence of Electronic Health (E-health), largely made possible by the massive deployment and adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs). However, cybercriminals and attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities associated primarily with ICTs, causing data breaches of patients’ confidential digital health information records. Here, we review recent security attacks reported for E-healthcare and discuss the solutions proposed to mitigate them. We also identify security challenges that must be addressed by E-health system designers and implementers in the future, to respond to threats that could arise as E-health systems become integrated with technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and smart cities.

Sexualized intravenous drug use, also known as slamsex, seems to be increasing among HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). Physical and psychopathological symptoms have previously been reported in this population, although research on the subject of slamsex is scarce. The objectives of our study were to describe the psychopathological background of a sample of HIV-positive MSM who engaged in slamsex during the previous year and to compare physical, psychopathological, and drug-related symptoms between these participants and those who engaged in non-injecting sexualized drug use. Participants (HIV-positive MSM) were recruited from the U-Sex study in 22 HIV clinics in Madrid during 2016-17. All participants completed an anonymous cross-sectional online survey on sexual behavior and recreational drug use. When participants met the inclusion criteria, physicians offered them the opportunity to participate and gave them a card with a unique code and a link to access the online survey. The present analysis is based on HIV-positive MSM who had engaged in slamsex and non-injecting sexualized drug use. The survey sample comprised 742 participants. Of all the participants who completed the survey, 216 (29.1%) had engaged in chemsex, and of these, 34 (15.7%) had engaged in slamsex. Participants who engaged in slamsex were more likely to have current psychopathology (depression, anxiety, and drug-related disorders) than participants who engaged in non-injecting sexualized drug use. In addition, participants who engaged in slamsex more frequently reported high-risk sexual behaviors and polydrug use and were more often diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and hepatitis C than those who did not inject drugs. Compared with participants who did not inject drugs, participants who engaged in slamsex experienced more severe drug-related symptoms (withdrawal and dependence), symptoms of severe intoxication (loss of consciousness), and severe psychopathological symptoms during or after slamsex (eg, paranoid thoughts and suicidal behaviors). Slamsex is closely associated with current psychiatric disorders and severe drug-related and psychiatric symptoms.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of a dietary supplement with a combination of omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants on dry eye symptoms caused by chronic instillation of antihypertensive eye drops in patients with glaucoma. A total of 1,255 patients with glaucoma and dry eye symptoms related to antiglaucoma topical medication participated in an open-label, uncontrolled, prospective, and multicenter study and were instructed to take three capsules a day of the nutraceutical formulation (Brudypio(®) 1.5 g) for 12 weeks. Dry eye symptoms (graded as 0-3 [none to severe, respectively]), conjunctival hyperemia, tear breakup time, Schirmer I test, Oxford grading scheme, and intraocular pressure were assessed. After 12 weeks of administration of the dietary supplement, all dry eye symptoms improved significantly (P<0.001) (mean 1.3 vs 0.6 for scratching, 1.4 vs 0.7 for stinging sensation, 1.6 vs 0.7 for grittiness, 1.0 vs 0.4 for tired eyes, 1.1 vs 0.5 for grating sensation, and 0.8 vs 0.3 for blurry vision). The Schirmer test scores and the tear breakup time also increased significantly. There was an increase in the percentage of patients grading 0-I in the Oxford scale and a decrease in those grading IV-V. Compliance was recorded in 62.5% of patients. In compliant patients, the mean differences at 12 weeks vs baseline of dry eye symptoms were statistically significant as compared to noncompliant patients. Dietary supplementation with Brudypio(®) may be a clinically valuable additional option for the treatment of dry eye syndrome in patients with glaucoma using antiglaucoma eye drops. These results require confirmation with an appropriately designed randomized controlled study.

Three series of polyesters based on monomer combinations of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL), ethylene brassylate (EB), and l-Lactide (LLA) with the alkyl substituted lactone ε-decalactone (ε-DL) were synthesized at different molar ratios. Copolymers were obtained via ring opening polymerization (ROP) employing TBD (1,5,7-triazabicyclo-[4.4.0]-dec-5-ene), an organic catalyst which can be handled under normal conditions, avoiding the use of glove box equipment. The molar monomer composition of resulting copolymers differed from theoretical values due to lower ε-DL reactivity; their Mn and Mw values were up to 14 kDa and 22.8 kDa, respectively, and distributions were (Ɖ) ≤ 2.57. The thermal stability of these materials suffered due to variations in their ε-DL molar content. Thermal transitions such as melting (Tm) and crystallization (Tc) showed a decreasing tendency as ε-DL molar content increased, while glass transition (Tg) exhibited minor changes. It is worth mentioning that changes in monomer composition in these polyesters have a strong impact on their thermal performance, as well as in their crystallization degree. Consequently, variations in their chemical structure may have an effect on hydrolyic degradation rates. It should be noted that, in future research, some of these copolymers will be exposed to hydrolytic degradation experiments, including characterizations of their mechanical properties, to determine their adequacy in potential use in the development of soft medical devices.

Capital structure is an integral part of the corporate finance that sources the funds to finance growth and operations. Managers always have to maintain value of the firm to be higher than the cost of capital in order to maximize the shareholders wealth. Empirical studies have used sources of finance like debt and equity as variables of capital structure. A choice between debt and equity finance analyzes the firm’s ability to perform under the financially constrained environment to attain the sustainable growth. Therefore, it gives rise to a dire need to estimate the cost of capital precisely. We examined the capital structure of top ten market capitalization of the stock markets included in MSCI Emerging index with the use of artificial neural networks, support vector regression, and linear regression in forecasting methods. The capital structure is measured as the proportion of total debt over total equity (Tang et al., 1991). Other financial ratios such as profitability, liquidity, solvent, and turnover ratios were considered as drivers of the capital structure. Applying logistic and hyperbolic tangent activation functions, it was concluded that ANN has a great potential of replacing other traditional forecasting models with the nonstationary data. This research contributes with a new dimension for estimation through different activation functions. There is a possibility of ANN dominance as compared to the other models applied for predictability in financial markets.

Background Microspherophakia is a rare autosomal recessive eye disorder characterized by small spherical lens. It may present as an isolated finding or in association with other ocular and/or systemic disorders. This clinical and genetic heterogeneity requires the study of large genes ( ADAMTSL4, FBN1, LTBP2, ADAMTSL-10 and ADAMTSL17 ). The purpose of the present study is to identify the genetic cause of this pathology in a consanguineous Spanish family. Methods A clinical exome sequencing experiment was executed by the TruSight One ® Sequencing Panel (TSO) from Illumina©. Sanger sequencing was used to validate the NGS results. Results Only the insertion of an adenine in exon 36 of the LTBP2 gene (c.5439_5440insA) was associated with pathogenicity. This new mutation was validated by Sanger sequencing and segregation analysis was also performed. Haplotype analyses using the polymorphic markers D 14 S 1025, D14S43 and D14S999 close to the LTBP2 gene indicated identity by descent in this family. Conclusion We describe the first case of a microspherophakia phenotype associated with a novel homozygous mutation in the LTBP 2 gene in a consanguineous Caucasian family by means of NGS technology.

The role of rs1127354/rs7270101 alleles at the inosine triphosphatase (ITPA) gene on ribavirin-induced anemia was assessed in 74 human immunodeficiency virus/hepatitis C virus-coinfected patients. Anemia developed in 80% of patients with normal compared to 33% of those with reduced ITPA activity. In contrast, ITPA variants did not influence sustained virological response. The role of rs1127354/rs7270101 alleles at the inosine triphosphatase (ITPA) gene on ribavirin-induced anemia was assessed in 74 patients with hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus coinfection. Anemia developed in 80% of patients with normal ITPA activity compared with 33% of those with reduced ITPA activity. In contrast, ITPA variants did not influence sustained virological response.

Many mobile payment systems have emerged in the last few years which allow payments for services and goods from mobile devices. However, most of them have been based on a scenario where all the entities are directly connected to each other (formally called the full connectivity scenario) and do not consider those situations where the client cannot directly communicate with the merchant. We present the design and the implementation of an anonymous secure payment protocol based on the payment gateway centric scenario for mobile environments where the client cannot communicate directly with the merchant to process the payment request. Our proposed payment protocol uses symmetric-key operations because of their low computational requirements. We present a performance evaluation of the proposed payment protocol in a real environment. Performance results obtained with the implemented protocol demonstrate that our protocol achieves a small execution time (11.68 s) for a payment transaction using a mobile phone and a restricted scenario which causes only a slight increase in the number of the steps necessary to complete a payment transaction as a result of the lack of direct communication between the client and the merchant.

In the last few years, many value-added applications (such as Payment services) in Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks ( VANETs ) have emerged. Although these applications offer great business opportunities they also introduce new concerns regarding security and privacy. Moreover, the wide range of scenarios (with or without connectivity restrictions) arising from vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications have opened up new security challenges which must be considered by Payment system designers to achieve the same security capabilities independent of the scenario where Payment occurs. We designed and implemented a lightweight (using symmetric-key operations which requires low computational power) secure Payment protocol for those scenarios in VANETs and other mobile environments where the Merchant cannot communicate directly with the Acquirer (the Merchant’s financial institution) to process the Payment Request . We also present practical performance results that can be achieved with the proposed Payment protocol.