关键词： Trichophyton verrucosum   Onychomycosis   Nails   CAPP treatment method   Viability  

摘要： Purpose Anthropophilic dermatophytes as etiological factors of onychomycoses are more common than zoophilic fungi. In the case of the latter, reverse zoonoses are possible, which poses a threat to the persistence of dermatophytes in the environment. Nevertheless, without treatment, both types of tinea unguium may lead to complete nail plate destruction and secondary mixed infections with fungi and bacteria. One of the zoophilic dermatophytes that cause onychomycosis is Trichophyton verrucosum, whose prevalence has been increasing in recent years. Such infections are usually treated with allylamines and/or azoles, but such a conventional treatment of infections caused by T. verrucosum often fails or is discontinued by patients. Methods Herein, we reveal the results of our in vitro studies related to direct application of cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) on Trichophyton verrucosum growth, germination and adherence to nail as a new alternative treatment method of such types of dermatomycoses. Results Our in vitro studies showed that, while exposure to CAPP for 10 min delays germination of conidia and clearly impairs the fitness of the fungal structures, 15 min is enough to kill all fungal elements exposed to plasma. Moreover, the SEM images revealed that T. verrucosum cultures exposed to CAPP for 10 and 15 min were not able to invade the nail fragments. Conclusion The results revealed that single exposure to CAPP was able to inhibit T. verrucosum growth and infection capacity. Hence, cold atmospheric pressure plasma should be considered as a promising alternative treatment of onychomycoses.

关键词： medullary thyroid carcinoma   calcitonin   procalcitonin   meta-analysis  

摘要： Context: Calcitonin (CT) measurement is pivotal in the management of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), but several pitfalls can affect its reliability. Procalcitonin (ProCT) has been reported as a promising alternative MTC tumor marker. Objective: This study aimed to determine the ProCT diagnostic accuracy in prediction and treatment monitoring of MTC. Methods: Electronic databases were searched for observational studies published until May 2021 without language or time restrictions. Studies comparing ProCT and calcitonin accuracy were included. After removing duplicates and exclusion of not-eligible articles, relevant articles were screened independently by 2 reviewers. Eleven studies (4.5% of the identified studies) met the selection criteria. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed data quality and validity through QUADAS-2. Results: A meta-analysis was performed on 11 sufficiently clinically and statistically homogeneous studies (n = 5817 patients, 335 MTC patients). Hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics and bivariate methods were applied. Serum ProCT was found to be a highly accurate test for MTC diagnosis and monitoring. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, area under the curve, and positive and negative predictive values for ProCT were 0.90 (95% CI: 0.71-0.97), 1.00 (95% CI: 0.85-1.00), 288 (95% CI: 5.6-14 929.3), 0.10 (95% CI: 0.03-0.33), 0.97 (95% CI: 0.95-0.98), 99%, and 2%, respectively. Conclusions: The high accuracy, compounded with favorable analytical characteristics, give ProCT great potential to replace calcitonin as a new standard of care in the management of MTC.

关键词： Stretchable printed circuit   Thermoforming process   Conductive ink   Adhesive joint  

摘要： In early stages, the electronic circuits have been developed on simple printed circuit boards with multiple copper patterns and components interconnected by lead - free solder. Later on, these are converted to flexible circuits and molded interconnect devices (MID) because of high demand of complex circuit design. Laser machine is used to manufacture 3D MID circuits. An alternative manufacturing process has been introduced in this research. The method is to design functional circuits by using stretchable ink printed on a 2D substrate. Polycarbonate is selected as a substrate on the basis of its glass transition temperature (T-g). Thermoforming process is then applied to transfer 2D substrate into 3D shape. Reverse engineering technique is used to fabricate the mold through several steps. First, the dimensions of rear lighting is calculated by coordinate measuring machine (CMM), transferred to 3D drawing using SolidWorks. And finally the mold is produced using computer numerical control (CNC) machine. Screen printing technique is opted to print ink on a flat thermoplastic Polycarbonate substrate. The highly conductive circuit will be generated after heating printed ink in oven for about 30 min at 120 degrees C. The circuit with substrate is further transferred into 3D shape using the thermoforming process. All the light emitted diodes (LEDs) are then fixed on a circuit by dispensing conductive adhesive and cured again in an oven for 10 min at 120 degrees C, so strong bonds are formed at the joints. The reliability of the circuit is assessed by characterizing mechanical and electrical properties. The designed circuit is then compared with the existing design using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), universal testing, two-point probes multi-meter and spectrometer. The electrical performance of new circuit design shows promising results in terms of power consumption and luminous flux of LEDs and there is no major difference found between them. As a result, the new manu

关键词： Azospirillum brasilense   ethanol utilization   cometabolism   alcohol dehydrogenase   aldehyde dehydrogenase  

摘要： Azospirillum brasilense is a plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium that is not known to utilize ethanol as a sole source of carbon for growth. This study shows that A. brasilense can cometabolize ethanol in medium containing fructose or glycerol as a carbon source and contribute to its growth. In minimal medium containing fructose or glycerol as a carbon source, supplementation of ethanol caused enhanced production of an alcohol dehydrogenase (ExaA) and an aldehyde dehydrogenase (AldA) in A. brasilense. However, this was not the case when malate was used as a carbon source. Inactivation of aldA in A. brasilense resulted in the loss of the AldA protein and its ethanol utilizing ability in fructose- or glycerol-supplemented medium. Furthermore, ethanol inhibited the growth of the aldA::Km mutant. The exaA::Km mutant also lost its ability to utilize ethanol in fructose-supplemented medium. However, in glycerol-supplemented medium, A. brasilense utilized ethanol due to the synthesis of a new paralog of alcohol dehydrogenase (ExaA1). The expression of exaA1 was induced by glycerol but not by fructose. Unlike exaA, expression of aldA and exaA1 were not dependent on s 54. Instead, they were negatively regulated by the RpoH2 sigma factor. Inactivation of rpoH2 in A. brasilense conferred the ability to use ethanol as a carbon source without or with malate, overcoming catabolite repression caused by malate. This is the first study showing the role of glycerol and fructose in facilitating cometabolism of ethanol by inducing the expression of ethanol-oxidizing enzymes and the role of RpoH2 in repressing them. IMPORTANCE This study unraveled a hidden ability of Azospirillum brasilense to utilize ethanol as a secondary source of carbon when fructose or glycerol were used as a primary growth substrate. It opens the possibility of studying the regulation of expression of the ethanol oxidation pathway for generating high yielding strains that can efficiently utilize ethanol. Such st

关键词： bioactive molecules   alkaloids   flavonoids   terpenoids   coronavirus   COVID-19   SARS-CoV-2  

摘要： Several coronaviruses (CoVs) have been associated with serious health hazards in recent decades, resulting in the deaths of thousands around the globe. The recent coronavirus pandemic has emphasized the importance of discovering novel and effective antiviral medicines as quickly as possible to prevent more loss of human lives. Positive-sense RNA viruses with group spikes protruding from their surfaces and an abnormally large RNA genome enclose CoVs. CoVs have already been related to a range of respiratory infectious diseases possibly fatal to humans, such as MERS, SARS, and the current COVID-19 outbreak. As a result, effective prevention, treatment, and medications against human coronavirus (HCoV) is urgently needed. In recent years, many natural substances have been discovered with a variety of biological significance, including antiviral properties. Throughout this work, we reviewed a wide range of natural substances that interrupt the life cycles for MERS and SARS, as well as their potential application in the treatment of COVID-19.

摘要： Objective: Microprolactinomas are currently treated with dopamine agonists. Outcome information on microprolactinoma patients treated by surgery is limited. This study reports the first large series of consecutive noninvasive microprolactinoma patients treated by pituitary surgery and evaluates the efficiency and safety of this treatment. Design: Follow-up of a cohort of consecutive patients treated by surgery. Methods: Between January 2008 and October 2020, 114 adult patients with pure microprolactinomas were operated on in a single tertiary expert neurosurgical department, using an endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach. Eligible patients presented with a microprolactinoma with no obvious cavernous invasion on MRI. Prolactin was assayed before and after surgery. Disease-free survival was modeled using Kaplan-Meier representation. A cox regression model was used to predict remission. Results: Median follow-up was 18.2 months (range: 2.8-155). In this cohort, 14/114 (12%) patients were not cured by surgery, including ten early surgical failures and four late relapses occurring 37.4 months (33-41.8) after surgery. From Kaplan-Meier estimates, 1-year and 5-year disease free survival was 90.9% (95% CI: 85.6-96.4%) and 81% (95% CI: 71.2-92.1%) respectively. The preoperative prolactinemia was the only significant preoperative predictive factor for remission (P < 0.05). No severe complication was reported, with no anterior pituitary deficiency after surgery, one diabetes insipidus, and one postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage properly treated by muscle plasty. Conclusions: In well-selected microprolactinoma patients, pituitary surgery performed by an expert neurosurgical team is a valid first-line alternative treatment to dopamine agonists.

关键词： hepatitis B   liver   chronic liver disease  

摘要： Regulation of alternative splicing is one of the most efficient mechanisms to enlarge the proteomic diversity in eukaryotic organisms. Many viruses hijack the splicing machinery following infection to accomplish their replication cycle. Regarding the HBV, numerous reports have described alternative splicing events of the long viral transcript (pregenomic RNA), which also acts as a template for viral genome replication. Alternative splicing of HBV pregenomic RNAs allows the synthesis of at least 20 spliced variants. In addition, almost all these spliced forms give rise to defective particles, detected in the blood of infected patients. HBV-spliced RNAs have long been unconsidered, probably due to their uneasy detection in comparison to unspliced forms as well as for their dispensable role during viral replication. However, recent data highlighted the relevance of these HBV-spliced variants through (1) the trans-regulation of the alternative splicing of viral transcripts along the course of liver disease;(2) the ability to generate defective particle formation, putative biomarker of the liver disease progression;(3) modulation of viral replication;and (4) their intrinsic propensity to encode for novel viral proteins involved in liver pathogenesis and immune response. Altogether, tricky regulation of HBV alternative splicing may contribute to modulate multiple viral and cellular processes all along the course of HBV-related liver disease.

关键词： tenotomy   elbow   fracture   approach   intra-articular  

摘要： Intra-articular fractures of the distal humerus present challenges to treating physician and patient alike. The olecranon osteotomy is accepted as the standard exposure for intra-articular distal humerus fractures;nevertheless, complications such as nonunion and implant prominence are common. In this article, we describe the clinical outcomes and anatomic features of the triceps tenotomy as an alternative method of exposure for internal fixation of intra-articular distal humerus fractures. The olecranon osteotomy approach affords greater exposure of the distal humerus articular surface;however, there was no difference in quality of fracture reduction, progression to fracture union, posttraumatic arthrosis, or implant failure between approaches in our series. The osteotomy approach resulted in a greater need for reoperation (15% vs. 46%, respectively);largely as a result of olecranon implant-related complications. In summary, the triceps tenotomy offers an alternative exposure for intra-articular distal humerus fracture fixation with comparable clinical outcomes to the olecranon osteotomy technique.

关键词： Charging Station   Dlc   Phev   Gams   Incentive   Optimization  

摘要： Optimal participation of charging stations is considered to increase the performance of smart grids. During the implementation of the direct load control (DLC) demand response program (DRP), the optimal distribution of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) from primary charging stations (PCSs) to alternative or secondary charging stations (SCSs) could alleviate congestion of charging stations, power lines, and traffic of paths. To this end, the optimal economic dispatch of charging stations during the self-healing period in three proposed managerial modes, including 1) equal-economic optimization (EEO), 2) economic optimization (EO), and 3) priority-economic optimization (PEO) has been performed. The results show the maximum reduction in incentive costs for the operating company and taken times for customers. Execution of operations in urban areas, the ability to be combined with electricity grid constraints, and attention to the responsiveness of SCSs are other advantages. The project optimizations and calculations with numerical experiments based on Gams solution approach are performed.

关键词： Aviation Fuel   Kinematic Viscosity   Pressure Swirl Atomizer   Combustion Chambers   Gas Turbine Engines   Aviation   Pilot   Discharge Coefficient   Alternative Fuels   Static Pressure  

摘要： The spray characteristics of standard and alternative aviation fuels created by a hybrid pressure-swirl airblast (HPSA) atomizer were investigated at conditions corresponding to engine cold start for an aviation gas turbine. Drop size and drop velocity of sprays from three different fuels, Jet-A (A-2), JP-5 (A-3), and a JP-5/farnesane blend (C-3) were investigated using a phase Doppler anemometry. The spatially resolved drop measurements were obtained at three axial locations downstream of the swirler exit plane and up to 30 mm in the radial direction from the spray centerline. Smaller D-10, D-32, and MMD were observed when increasing the pressure drop across the atomizer swirler (Delta P/P). Increasing Delta P/P also increased the mean axial velocity. No definitive trend was observed with viscosity on drop size, while liquid-gas surface tension showed a weak correlation with drop size due to its small variation in value among fuels. The spray unsteadiness was examined using interparticle arrival time distribution functions. A semi-empirical model was also developed using a phenomenological three-step model for the atomization process of the HPSA atomizer and was used to predict drop-size values at engine cold-start conditions in this work and near lean blowout conditions presented in earlier work.