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The potential of using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to detect hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been investigated in both time and frequency domains.Under hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemic clamp conditions, we have shown that the brain's response to hypoglycemic episodes could be described by the centroid frequency and spectral gyration radius evaluated from spectral moments of EEG signals. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of hypoglycemia on spectral moments in EEG epochs of different durations and to propose the optimal time window for hypoglycemia detection without using clamp protocols. The incidence of hypoglycemic episodes at night time in five T1D adolescents was analyzed from selected data of ten days of observations in this study. We found that hypoglycemia is associated with significant changes (P<0.05) in spectral moments of EEG segments in different lengths. Specifically, the changes were more pronounced on the occipital lobe. We used effect size as a measure to determine the best EEG epoch duration for the detection of hypoglycemic episodes. Using Bayesian neural networks, this study showed that 30 second segments provide the best detection rate of hypoglycemia. In addition, Clarke's error grid analysis confirms the correlation between hypoglycemia and EEG spectral moments of this optimal time window, with 86% of clinically acceptable estimated blood glucose values. These results confirm the potential of using EEG spectral moments to detect the occurrence of hypoglycemia. IndexTerms-Electroencephalogram (EEG), hypoglycemia, optimal time window, spectral moment.

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This study describes an inexpensive, simple and green method to form silver nanoparticles from different leaf extracts of Achyranthes aspera and Scoparia dulcis plants. The silver nitrate is reduced by Achyranthes aspera and Scoparia dulcis leaf extracts respectively to generate two silver nanoparticle types symbolized as AA.AgNPs and SD.AgNPs. The optical absorption, size and morphology of silver nanoparticles are significantly impacted by extract types. The ultraviolet visible spectrum of AA.AgNPs shows a 433-nm peak being more broadened than that of SD.AgNPs. The Fourier infrared transform spectra of two of these silver nanoparticles revealed that their surface is modified by organic constituents from extracts, and thus they are stabilized in solution without any additional reaction. Images from transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscope indicate that AA.AgNPs are in clusters with the size of 8–52 nm almost possessing oval shape, while SD.AgNPs are smaller size of 5-45 nm separated well in diversified shapes (spherical, triangle, quadrilateral and hexagonal). Moreover, both AA.AgNPs and SD.AgNPs exhibit the highly antifungal effect against Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and the most strong impact on Fusarium oxysporum. For these obtained results, two new silver nanoparticles are promising fungicides for various applications of medical and agricultural fields.

Background Mobile health (mHealth) has been used to promote sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education and services; however, little is known about the use of mHealth to improve safe abortion knowledge and access to safe abortion services among female sex workers (FSWs). This study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of iConnect intervention through changes in knowledge on safe abortion and changes in perceived barriers to safe abortion services among FSWs in Vietnam. Methods iConnect mobile app was developed as an interactive platform to deliver safe abortion education and referral to safe abortion services through short messaging services (SMS) enhanced by tele-counseling for 512 FSWs in Hanoi, Vietnam. A pretest-posttest evaluation was conducted using questionnaire-based phone interviews administered to 251 participants at baseline and 3 months following the intervention. Non-parametric tests evaluated the change in abortion knowledge, behaviors, and perceived barriers to safe abortion. Results There were significant improvements in the knowledge on safe abortion among the study participants. Specifically, FSWs’ knowledge of correct gestational ages (≤22 weeks) for medical abortion increased from 78.9% at baseline to 96.8% (P=0.001). Knowledge of correct gestational ages for medical abortion at the private clinic increased from 45.3% to 63.1% (P=0.001). Knowledge on the consequences of unsafe abortion increased from 75.2% to 92.1% (P=0.001). In addition, perceived stigma and discrimination when seeking safe abortion decreased from 36.5% to 27.8% (P=0.036) and worry about the lack of confidentiality decreased from 23.3% to 15.5% (P=0.035). Conclusions The evaluation results showed the initial effectiveness of a mobile app-based intervention in improving access to safe abortion information and services among FSWs. A future study is needed to establish the efficacy of the intervention for scaling up in Vietnam and elsewhere.

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