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Quality and quantity of bone at intraoral graft donor sites in type 2 diabetic patients versus healthy controls: A cone-beam computed tomography study
No full textObjectives: This study aimed to compare the quality and quantity of bone at intraoral autogenous graft donor sites in type II diabetes mellitus (DM) patients versus healthy controls using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and methods: This case-control study was conducted on CBCT scans of 50 DM patients and 50 healthy controls between 20-70 years. Maximum height, width, length, and volume of harvestable bone at the symphysis, ramus, palate, and tuberosity were measured bilaterally. The Hounsfield unit (HU) was also calculated to assess bone quality. The two groups were compared regarding the quality and quantity of harvestable bone using an independent t-test. The effect of confounders was analyzed by the regression model (alpha = 0.05). Results: DM patients had significantly lower harvestable bone volume at the symphysis, ramus, and tuberosity than healthy controls (p < 0.001) but this difference was not significant at the palate (p = 0.957). Also, bone quality was significantly lower at the symphysis, ramus, palate, and tuberosity in DM patients (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Diabetic patients had significantly lower bone quality and quantity at intraoral graft donor sites than healthy controls. Mandibular symphysis had higher bone volume and density than ramus, palate, and tuberosity for graft harvesting in diabetic patients
Creatine Supplementation and Akt/mTOR Pathway: Unraveling the Connection for Optimal Muscle Performance
No full textThis review paper investigates the relationship between creatine supplementation and the Akt/mTOR pathway, focusing on their impact on muscle performance. The Akt/mTOR pathway is a crucial signaling pathway that regulates muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy in response to growth factors, nutrients, and mechanical stimuli. Recent evidence suggests that creatine supplementation can influence anabolic signaling pathways, including the phosphorylation of p70S6K, a downstream target of mTOR, leading to enhanced activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway. Additionally, creatine supplementation has been shown to increase intramuscular creatine and phosphocreatine levels, improving ATP availability during exercise and enhancing high-intensity muscle contractions. Understanding the complex regulatory mechanisms of the Akt/mTOR pathway is vital for optimizing muscle performance, as dysregulated signaling can hinder muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophic responses. This review highlights the potential of creatine supplementation to modulate the Akt/mTOR pathway, offering insights into its mechanisms and implications for muscle performance enhancement. By unraveling this connection, researchers and practitioners can develop targeted strategies to maximize muscle performance and promote adaptive responses in various exercise and athletic contexts
Myocardial fibrosis in aortic stenosis: comparison between clinical data, laboratory, echocardiography, and cardiac magnetic resonance
No full textIntroduction: Patients with aortic stenosis often develop hypertrophy and fibrosis, regardless of symptoms. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) represents the gold standard for the evaluation of fibrosis despite numerous limitations: cost, availability, atrial fibrillation, claustrophobia, kidney failure or inability to apnea.Purpose: The aim is to validate the role of echocardiographic parameters, such as Global Longitudinal Strain (GLS), as early markers of fibrosis. Clinical and laboratory data, particularly B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP), were also analyzed.Material and methods: In our study we recruited 33 patients with severe aortic stenosis, correlating echocardiographic values of GLS with the qualitative analysis of Late Gadolinium Enhancement (LGE) and the quantitative analysis of T1 mapping of CMR.Results: 70% of patients with an alteration of GLS had LGE+. Univariate logistic regression shows that the factors associated with the presence of LGE on CMR are hypertension (p = 0.043), GLS (p = 0.032), and elevated BNP values (p = 0.021); for GLS, Odds Ratio (OR) is 5 so the chance of finding fibrosis on CMR increases 5 times in presence of an altered GLS. The multivariate analysis confirms the association with impaired GLS values (p = 0.033) and hypertension (p = 0.025), but not with elevated Pro-BNP values.Conclusion: In patients with severe aortic stenosis, the association between GLS, LGE, and T1 mapping can help identify earlier those patients with structural changes caused by the disease, who could benefit from early intervention. It remains to be established how the presence of these alterations has a role in determining the intervention time and the outcome of these patients
Room temperature organic superconductor compound prediction based on fractals in mesoscopic-scale regime
No full textBased on paraffin-wax include, volcano-based antimony-bearing, phospholipid, antimony found in gold deposit and TIPSb/triisopropylantimony ever predicted as the room temperature organic superconductor compound. Many flourishing explanations have been declared, from variational method to inductive deduction, with all indicating the presence of C9H21O3Sb.PBr6.We consider that aplications in mesoscale regime, at least when using multiscale fractal of critical parameter that affects physical & chemical properties and to adopt “mesoscopic scale” ever stated as “superconductors” by Holmvall (2017). Then the mathematical induction of variational method of exploitation on integers & natural numbers herewith paraffin-wax etc can be resembled the ever built antimony containing compounds to keep the realm of predictions
Minimally invasive cytoreductive surgery in advanced ovarian cancer: A nonselected consecutive series of robotic-assisted cases
No full textThe gold standard for advanced-stage ovarian cancer surgery entails exploration via a midline vertical laparotomy. Studies have shown that minimally invasive surgery (MIS) can be a safe and effective method for the surgical management of early ovarian cancer. In some cases, MIS can also be selectively used for cytoreductive surgery in cases with advanced-stage ovarian cancer. The robotic platform has the potential to provide similar outcomes to the laparotomy-based standard of care in advanced complex surgery while accelerating recovery, minimizing morbidity, and reducing perioperative complications. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate surgical and perioperative outcomes in patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma who underwent robotic-assisted cytoreduction. A chart review of a nonselected consecutive series of all patients undergoing surgical management of advanced ovarian cancer between 7/1/2017 and 12/31/2021 was conducted. All patients that were diagnosed with Stage III to IV ovarian cancer between the timeframe underwent robotic-assisted cytoreductive surgery at two urban community teaching hospitals in Los Angeles. Twenty-five patients were identified and included in this study. All surgeries were performed by a single surgeon. Optimal or complete CRS was achieved in 96% of the patients (24 of 25 cases). Seven (28%) underwent primary cytoreduction (PCRS) and 18 (72%) underwent interval cytoreduction (ICRS). The estimated median blood loss was 100 mL (25-500 mL), the median operative time was 5.9 hours (3.1-10.5 hours), and the conversion rate to open laparotomy was 0%. There were no intraoperative complications and the readmission rate within 30 days was 4% (1 patient) for ileus, which was managed conservatively. Currently, 64% of the patients in the case series remain alive. The median survival has not been reached. The median follow-up is 4.08 years. Results presented from this nonselected, consecutive case series illustrate how a minimally invasive robotic approach can be safely used in place of the standard exploratory laparotomy for ovarian cytoreduction
Validating the ORACollect for the detection of cytomegalovirus
No full textTargeted screening for Cytomegalovirus (CMV) in Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children is now internationally recommended. With newborn genomic screening for DHH children a future possibility, the commercially-available human genomic DNA collection kit (ORACollect, Oragene OCR-100) could enable one single sample to screen for CMV and genetic causes of deafness at scale with minimal additional costs. Our pilot study validated ORACollect against Copan FLOQswabs® (gold standard clinical procedure) for detecting CMV using 15 sets of saliva samples from 14 infants/children, comparing CMV PCR results using different testing protocols. ORACollect stored at room temperature had high sensitivity (up to 89%), specificity (up to 80%) and percent agreement (up to 86%) in detecting CMV DNA compared to FLOQswabs®. This suggests that ORACollect is an appropriate alternative to FLOQswabs® for collecting viral CMV DNA for PCR testing, independent of the DNA extraction approach. This could be revolutionary in facilitating dual genomic and viral screening in newborns and would enable CMV screening in non-tertiary hospital settings where laboratory facilities are not available
Assessment of on farm agrobiodiversity and its role in food sufficiency in mid hill, Nepal
No full textA survey was conducted in the agricultural farms in Dhulikhel Municipality, mid-hill, Kavre, Nepal aiming at assessing the status of agrobiodiversity with the purpose of understanding its role in food security taking altogether 133 farming households scattered in several settlements with lowland, upland, and home garden being the general agricultural land use systems. Biodiversity index: Shannon-Wiener Index was used to assess diversity of plant. The main purpose was to assess the farm agrobiodiversity and to find out whether biodiversity level has a direct link to household food self-sufficiency. For descriptive analysis frequency, percentage, mean and standard errors were used. In the case of inferential statistics independent sample t - test and binary logistic was used to find the odd ratio of practicing home garden. The result showed that the average landholding size was 0.66 ha/household with 0.37 ha, 0.3 ha, and 0.06 ha being upland, low land, and home garden, respectively. A total of 136 plant species were documented out of which 74 were the effective number of species in the study area. Among the used plants, fodder shared 27% of the total plant diversity followed by fruit (21%), vegetable (19%), medicinal plants (8%), pulses (8%), spices (7%), oilseeds (5%) and cereals (5%). Similarly, the mean livestock unit (LSU) was 2.65. The overall Shannon-Wiener Index was 4.30 indicating high diversity of species and 87.7% of the species were evenly distributed. The Index was higher for vegetable (3.11) followed by fruits (2.9) and fodder (2.85). Higher diversity was found in fodder trees in lowlands whereas vegetable species were more diverse in upland and home garden. Similarly, the Index was 4.29 in the upland whereas it was 4.078 in the home garden followed by 3.13 in the lowland. The evenness was 0.899, 0.87, and 0.74 in upland, home garden and lowland, respectively. Higher species diversity revealed that the site was rich in agrobiodiversity. A significant positive correlation (0.22) was observed between Shannon-Wiener Index and farming years. Similarly, positive correlation (0.33) was found between an increase in the level of agrobiodiversity and food self-sufficiency. The result demonstrated that increasing crop diversity increases the household’s ability towards food sufficiency implying the need for the formulation and implementation of efficient policy to conserve the agrobiodiversity at municipality as well as national levels
Comparative Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Methods for the Treatment of Surgical Soft Tissue Infection
No full textBackground: The presence of a multifaceted microbiological etiological factor of surgical infection and differentiated sensitivity to antibacterial drugs determines the need to develop more effective means and methods of influencing the purulent microflora of wounds. Physical treatment factors, in particular, low-frequency ultrasound and ionised plasma flows, should be considered promising for solving this problem.Materials and methods: The research was carried out based on the Scientific Center of Microbiology and the clinic of the Tashkent Medical Academy. Bacteriological studies of wound discharge and biopsy material were carried out. We studied the material of purulent-inflammatory diseases of soft tissues.Results: Wound-sounding through a dioxidine solution is most effective against gram-negative bacteria, and ultrasonic cavitation in combination with iodopyrone is most effective against gram-positive microorganisms. Treatment of purulent wounds with low-frequency ultrasound through a mixture of iodopyrone solution and ascorbic acid is effective against gram-positive and gram-negative microbes. Argon plasma flows have a high bactericidal effect mainly on gram-negative bacteria.Conclusion: The obtained data substantiate the need to choose a physical method of treatment of purulent wounds depending on the species composition of the wound microflora
Environmental Effects on the Norbornadiene-quadricyclane Photoswitch for Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage
No full textToday’s need for renewable energy combined with modern societies' reliability on on-demand power leads us to find solutions that can store excess or produce directly to storage for later use. A MOlecular Solar Thermal (MOST) based on norbornadiene/quadricyclane(NBD/QC) does the latter with an isomeric photoswitching molecule pair. The theoretical studies of molecular solar thermals (MOST) provide a needed understanding of potential synthetic candidates. We have investigated an array of more complex solvation models for the norbornadiene/quadricycle (NBD/QC) photoswitch and the impacts of the models on the first absorption energy. Our results have been obtained with various density functional theoretical methods and basis sets
Apert Syndrome: A Case Report
No full textBackground: Apert syndrome is a type 1 acrocephalosyndactyly, a rare syndrome characterized by the presence of multiple craniosynostoses, dysmorphic facial manifestations, and syndactyly of hand and feet. It affects 1:100.00 of birth and is the second most common of syndromic craniosynostosis. Molecular genetic tests that identify the heterozygous pathogenic variant in FGFR2 genes - identical with Apert syndrome cost too high to be applicable in developing countries. Therefore, the diagnosis of Apert syndrome should be suspected from the clinical findings. Three cases from the Community of Indonesian Apert Warrior Group were collected. These series were based on medical and surgical records. We obtained the patient characteristics from the phenotypic manifestations only. Case report: We present a case of a newborn baby girl, with similar anatomical findings, such as skull shape abnormality, midface hypoplasia, intraoral disfigurement, and hands and feet deformities that resemble Apert Syndrome. Our series presents similar Apert syndrome characteristics, such as typical craniofacial dysmorphic with symmetrical syndactyly of both upper and lower extremities. These clinical findings are essential to establish an initial diagnosis of Apert Syndrome