Enhanced heart sound classification using Mel frequency cepstral coefficients and comparative analysis of single vs. ensemble classifier strategies.

This paper seeks to enhance the performance of Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) for detecting abnormal heart sounds. Heart sounds are first pre-processed to remove noise and then segmented into S1, systole, S2, and diastole intervals, with thirteen MFCCs estimated from each segment, yielding 52 MFCCs per beat. Finally, MFCCs are used for heart sound classification.

Brain tumor classification from MRI scans: a framework of hybrid deep learning model with Bayesian optimization and quantum theory-based marine predator algorithm.

Brain tumor classification is one of the most difficult tasks for clinical diagnosis and treatment in medical image analysis. Any errors that occur throughout the brain tumor diagnosis process may result in a shorter human life span. Nevertheless, most currently used techniques ignore certain features that have particular significance and relevance to the classification problem in favor of extracting and choosing deep significance features.

Cervical cancer detection using K nearest neighbor imputer and stacked ensemble learningmodel.

Objective: Cervical cancer stands as a leading cause of mortality among women in developing nations. To ensure the reduction of its adverse consequences, the primary protocols to be adhered to involve early detection and treatment under the guidance of expert medical professionals. An effective approach for identifying this form of malignancy involves the examination of Pap smear images.

Trimeric heptad repeat synthetic peptides HR1 and HR2 efficiently inhibit HIV-1 entry.

The trimeric heptad repeat domains HR1 and HR2 of the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) gp41 play a key role in HIV-1-entry by membrane fusion. To develop efficient inhibitors against this step, the corresponding trimeric-N36 and C34 peptides were designed and synthesized. Analysis by circular dichroism of monomeric and trimeric N36 and C34 peptides showed their capacities to adopt α-helical structures and to establish physical interactions.

Overview of external reference pricing systems in Europe.

Background And Objectives: External reference pricing (ERP) is a price regulation tool widely used by policy makers in the European Union (EU) Member States (MS) to contain drug cost, although in theory, it may contribute to modulate prices up and down. The objective of this article was to summarise and discuss the main findings of part of a large project conducted for the European Commission ('External reference pricing of medicinal products: simulation-based considerations for cross-country coordination'; see www.ec.

Novel methodology for pharmaceutical expenditure forecast.

Background And Objective: The value appreciation of new drugs across countries today features a disruption that is making the historical data that are used for forecasting pharmaceutical expenditure poorly reliable. Forecasting methods rarely addressed uncertainty. The objective of this project was to propose a methodology to perform pharmaceutical expenditure forecasting that integrates expected policy changes and uncertainty (developed for the European Commission as the 'EU Pharmaceutical expenditure forecast'; see http://ec.

EU pharmaceutical expenditure forecast.

Background And Objectives: With constant incentives for healthcare payers to contain their pharmaceutical budgets, forecasting has become critically important. Some countries have, for instance, developed pharmaceutical horizon scanning units. The objective of this project was to build a model to assess the net effect of the entrance of new patented medicinal products versus medicinal products going off-patent, with a defined forecast horizon, on selected European Union (EU) Member States' pharmaceutical budgets.

Pharmaceutical expenditure forecast model to support health policy decision making.

Background And Objective: With constant incentives for healthcare payers to contain their pharmaceutical budgets, modelling policy decision impact became critical. The objective of this project was to test the impact of various policy decisions on pharmaceutical budget (developed for the European Commission for the project 'European Union (EU) Pharmaceutical expenditure forecast' - http://ec.europa.

Protein kinase C-delta regulates HIV-1 replication at an early post-entry step in macrophages.

Background: Macrophages, which are CD4 and CCR5 positive, can sustain HIV-1 replication for long periods of time. Thus, these cells play critical roles in the transmission, dissemination and persistence of viral infection. Of note, current antiviral therapies do not target macrophages efficiently.

Cationic nanoglycolipidic particles as vector and adjuvant for the study of the immunogenicity of SIV Nef protein.

The objective of this study was to test the immunogenicity of SIV Nef protein formulated in cationic nanoglycolipidic particles of 100nm of diameter. In parallel, the adjuvant effect of these nanoglycolipidic particles was compared in similar experiments using GST-Nef in association with the commonly strongest used complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) or incomplete Freund's adjuvant in association with MDP or MDP alone. Our results showed that these particles do not alter the integrity of our immunogen GST-Nef, which remains stable for more than three months at 4°C.

Fusion intermediates of HIV-1 gp41 as targets for antibody production: design, synthesis, and HR1-HR2 complex purification and characterization of generated antibodies.

The objective of this project was to study the interaction between HR1 and HR2, the stability of the complex formed, and to characterize the antibodies produced against monomeric HR1 and HR2 peptides as well as the HR1-HR2 complex. In this work, HR1 was mimicked by peptide N36, and HR2 was mimicked by peptide C34L and its analogues C34M2, C34M3, and C34D. Whereas C34M2 and C34M3 are partially composed of D-amino acids, C34D has same sequence as C34L, but is assembled entirely of D-amino acids.