关键词： Biomaterials   Orthopaedic   Silicon nitride   Zirconia toughened alumina   Titanium   PEEK  

摘要： A variety of novel biomaterials are emerging as alternatives to conventional metals and alloys, for use in spinal implants. These promise potential advantages with respect to e.g. elastic modulus compatibility with the host bone, improved radiological imaging or enhanced cellular response to facilitate osseointegration. However, to date there is scarce comparative data on the biological response to many of these biomaterials that would give insights into the relative level of bone formation, resorption inhibition and inflammation. Thus, in this study, we aimed to evaluate and compare the in vitro biological response to standard discs of four alternative biomaterials: polyether ether ketone (PEEK), zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA), silicon nitride (SN) and surface-textured silicon nitride (ST-SN), and the reference titanium alloy Ti6Al4V (TI). Material-specific characteristics of these biomaterials were evaluated, such as surface roughness, wettability, protein adsorption (BSA) and apatite forming capacity in simulated body fluid. The activity of pre-osteoblasts seeded on the discs was characterized, by measuring viability, proliferation, attachment and morphology. Then, the osteogenic differentiation of preosteoblasts was compared in vitro from early to late stage by Alizarin Red S staining and real-time PCR analysis. Finally, osteoclast activity and inflammatory response were assessed by real-time PCR analysis. Compared to TI, all other materials generally demonstrated a lower osteoclastic activity and inflammatory response. ZTA and SN showed generally an enhanced osteogenic differentiation and actin length. Overall, we could show that SN and ST-SN showed a higher osteogenic effect than the other reference groups, an inhibitive effect against bone resorption and low inflammation, and the results indicate that silicon nitride has a promising potential to be developed further for spinal implants that require enhanced osseointegration.

关键词： Doravirine   lamivudine   RP‐   HPLC   Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate  

摘要： A novel method was developed for the simultaneous estimation of the doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate in the pharmaceutical dosage form. The chromatogram was run through an Ascentis C18 column (150 x 4.6 mm, 2.7 mu m), with the mobile phase consisting of a phosphate buffer and acetonitrile in the ratio of 50:50 (v/v). The mobile phase was pumped through the column at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The column temperature was maintained at 30 degrees C. The optimized wavelength for doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate was 230.0 nm. The retention times for doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil were 2.222, 2.764, and 3.403 min, respectively;the relative standard deviation (%) values of method precision for doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil were 0.6, 0.6, and 0.1, respectively. The % recovery was 100.20%, 100.15%, and 100.36% for doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, respectively. The limit of detection and limit of quantification values were obtained from regression equations of doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, and were 0.24 and 0.73 ppm, 0.53 and 1.60 ppm, and 0.47 and 1.43 ppm, respectively. The regression equations of doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate were y = 17,541x + 117,303, y = 15,555x + 10,791, and y = 15,250x + 31,663, respectively. The method developed was accurate, simple, precise, sensitive, and economical. Hence, it could be adopted for regular quality control for estimation of doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate in pharmaceutical industries.

关键词： Temporomandibular joint   TMJ   ankylosis   mandibulectomy  

摘要： Objectives Temporomandibular joint ankylosis (TMJA) is the partial or complete inability to open the mouth due to intra- or extra-articular fibrous, bony or fibro-osseous tissue proliferation. Surgical procedures such as gap arthroplasty, condylectomy or wide extra-articular osteotomy have been recommended to treat this condition;these techniques are challenging, time-consuming and have been occasionally associated with postoperative recurrence, severe periarticular neurovascular iatrogenic trauma and death. Segmental mandibulectomy had previously been recommended as an alternative option for unilateral TMJA, but the location of mandibulectomy and extent of bone removal from the mandible region have not been mentioned in the literature. This study aimed to validate the area of the mandibular body (rostral, middle or caudal) and amount of bony tissue that should be osteotomized during a segmental mandibulectomy for treatment of unilateral TMJA in cats. Methods In this block study, 30 cadaver heads of domestic shorthair cats were randomly divided into three groups of 10 specimens each based on the mandibular region that would undergo segmental mandibulectomy (rostral, middle and caudal). The size of the removed mandibular segment and pre- and postoperative vertical range of mandibular motion were compared for statistical purposes. Results A significant statistical difference was observed between the pre- and postoperative vertical range of mandibular motion between the rostral, middle and caudal segmental mandibulectomies (P <0.001). The mean postoperative recovered range of mandibular motion for the rostral, middle and caudal segmental mandibulectomies was 50.4%, 81.9% and 90.4%, respectively. Conclusions and relevance The caudal segmental mandibulectomy showed the highest postoperative vertical range of mandibular motion. The removal of a minimum of 1.2 cm of the caudal mandibular body was required to achieve nearly full recovery of presurgical mouth opening in the

摘要： BACKGROUND Sugammadex allows for rapid reversal of muscle relaxation after the use of rocuronium or vecuronium. The lowest recommended dose is 2 mg kg(-1) intravenously when there are two twitches during the train-of-four stimulation. OBJECTIVE To study the efficacy and risks of a lower dose of sugammadex administered earlier. DESIGN Monocentric randomised controlled double-blind study. SETTING Academic hospital. PATIENTS Eighty patients were enrolled and randomised in 8 groups of 10 patients, 56 were finally evaluated. INTERVENTIONS Patients were distributed in two clusters constituting four groups each. In the first cluster, injections were administered after the return of one twitch with the train-of-four (TOF1). In the second cluster, injections were delivered after the return of two twitches with the TOF (TOF2). We created four groups in each cluster for different dosages: placebo, 0.5, 1 or 2 mg kg(-1). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Time between the injection of sugammadex and full recovery (TOF ratio > 0.9) that is expressed in minutes. RESULTS Fifty-six successive patients were assessed between February and August 2018. The difference to TOF greater than 0.9 was not statistically significant between groups with the same dose administered at different times (F value = 0.001, P value = 0.975). There was a significant difference between groups with a different dosage administered at the same time (F ratio = 28.34;P value <0.0001). Concerning the time to TOF greater than 0.9 from the time point of TOF1, the timing of the dosages were statistically significant using log rank test (P < 0.0001). No patient presented a reparalysis. CONCLUSION No difference between injecting sugammadex at TOF1 or TOF2 was found regarding time to full recovery. Difference regarding sugammadex quantity was found and compatible with other studies.

关键词： Biodiversity offsetting   Ecological compensation   No net loss   Trade ratio   Biodiversity calculation method  

摘要： The rates of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss are alarming and current conservation efforts are not sufficient to stop them. The need for new tools is urgent. One approach is biodiversity offsetting: a developer causing habitat degradation provides an improvement in biodiversity so that the lost ecological value is compensated for. Accurate and ecologically meaningful measurement of losses and estimation of gains are essential in reaching the no net loss goal or any other desired outcome of biodiversity offsetting. The chosen calculation method strongly influences biodiversity outcomes. We compare a multiplicative method, which is based on a habitat condition index developed for measuring the state of ecosystems in Finland to two alternative approaches for building a calculation method: an additive function and a simpler matrix tool. We examine the different logic of each method by comparing the resulting trade ratios and examine the costs of offsetting for developers, which allows us to compare the cost-effectiveness of different types of offsets. The results show that the outcomes of the calculation methods differ in many aspects. The matrix approach is not able to consider small changes in the ecological state. The additive method gives always higher biodiversity values compared to the multiplicative method. The multiplicative method tends to require larger trade ratios than the additive method when trade ratios are larger than one. Using scoring intervals instead of using continuous components may increase the difference between the methods. In addition, the calculation methods have differences in dealing with the issue of substitutability.

关键词： Neurosurgery   Neurosciences  

关键词： Thermal    pretreatment   Dewatering   Thermophilic anaerobic digestion   High-rate bioreactor   Biogas    production   Microbial community analysis  

摘要： To address the limitations associated with the disposal management and the treatment process of POME, an alternative process that consists of eliminating the cooling ponds and integrating a pretreatment technology combined with a dewatering device was proposed. Since the proposed treatment process has not been tested previously, the objective of this study is to investigate the effect of thermal pretreatment and solid loading alteration via dewatering on a thermophilic continuous set up consisting of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket - hollow centered packed bed (UASB-HCPB) bioreactor. It was established that the best performing solid loading was the 40S:60L, which is made up of 40% by volume of POME settled solids and 60% of clarified liquid. Thermally pretreated 40S:60L solid loading had a significantly enhanced biogas production, methane purity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), and total suspended solids (TSS) removal efficiencies. The reactor exhibited stability owing to the low volatile fatty acid/alkalinity ratio obtained throughout the run. With a reactor capacity of 5L, thermally pretreated 40S:60L achieved a daily biogas production volume of 48L and a methane purity of 77.2%. The COD, BOD, and TSS removal efficiencies of the thermally pretreated 40S:60L solid loading were evaluated to be 97.5, 95.1, and 94.5%. The enhanced process performance is due to the consistent solids concentration, which allowed a more effective mass transfer and transport in the medium. Meanwhile, thermal pretreatment promoted cell lysis, making the intercellular organic matter readily available for the bacteria consortium.

关键词： Acute cholangitis   Temocillin   Antibiotic resistance  

摘要： With rising antibiotic resistance, alternatives to carbapenems are needed for acute cholangitis (AC). Temocillin reaches high biliary concentrations with limited impact on microbiota. We retrospectively included 140 AC episodes and assessed the efficacy of temocillin using microbiology susceptibility testing from blood cultures. Considering all bacteria collected by episode, resistance to temocillin, PIP/TAZ and 3GC occurred in 27/140 (26%), 32 (22.8%) and 31 (22%) episodes, respectively (p = 0.7). After documentation, temocillin could have spared PIP/TAZ or carbapenems in 14/26 and 4/11 episodes. Temocillin may constitute an alternative treatment after microbiological documentation by sparing carbapenems and/or PIP/TAZ, but not as an empirical therapeutic option.

摘要： Understanding how protein function has evolved and diversified is of great importance for human genetics and medicine. Here, we tackle the problem of describing the whole transcript variability observed in several species by generalizing the definition of splicing graph. We provide a practical solution to construct parsimonious evolutionary splicing graphs where each node is a minimal transcript building block defined across species. We show a clear link between the functional relevance, tissue regulation, and conservation of alternative transcripts on a set of 50 genes. By scaling up to the whole human protein-coding genome, we identify a few thousand genes where alternative splicing modulates the number and composition of pseudorepeats. We have implemented our approach in ThorAxe, an efficient, versatile, robust, and freely available computational tool.

关键词： inhibition kinetics   luteolin   Moringa oleifera   screening   tyrosinase   uncompetitive inhibitor  

摘要： Tyrosinase (TYR) is a type III copper oxidase present in fungi, plants and animals. The inhibitor of human TYR plays a vital role in pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields by preventing synthesis of melanin in the skin. To search for an effective TYR inhibitor from various plant extracts, a kinetic study of TYR inhibition was performed with mushroom TYR. Among Panax ginseng, Alpinia galanga, Vitis vinifera and Moringa oleifera, the extracts of V. vinifera seed, A. galanga rhizome and M. oleifera leaf reversibly inhibited TYR diphenolase activity with IC50 values of 94.8 +/- 0.2 mu g/mL, 105.4 +/- 0.2 mu g/mL and 121.3 +/- 0.4 mu g/mL, respectively. Under the same conditions, the IC50 values of the representative TYR inhibitors of ascorbic acid and kojic acid were found at 235.7 +/- 1.0 and 192.3 +/- 0.4 mu g/mL, respectively. An inhibition kinetics study demonstrated mixed-type inhibition of TYR diphenolase by A. galanga and V. vinifera, whereas a rare uncompetitive inhibition pattern was found from M. oleifera with an inhibition constant of K-ii 73 mu g/mL. Phytochemical investigation by HPLC-MS proposed luteolin as a specific TYR diphenolase ES complex inhibitor, which was confirmed by the inhibition kinetics of luteolin. The results clearly showed that studying TYR inhibition kinetics with plant extract mixtures can be utilized for the screening of specific TYR inhibitors.