Sacrococcygeal teratoma excision: a vertical rather than transverse wound closure

Background: The chevron incision has been the standard approach for sacrococcygeal teratoma (SCT) excision. Here, we are reporting our experience of shifting to the vertical posterior sagittal approach.Patients and methods: During the period 2011 through 2016, we operated on 17 (16 female and one male) cases of SCT. Their age at presentation ranged from day 1 to 26 months (mean=4.8 months, median=2 months). The chevron incision was used in five, whereas the vertical posterior sagittal approach was used in 12 patients.Results: In this series, we had one case of perioperative mortality, in addition to another case of perineal wound disruption (in the group of vertical wound closure), which was managed conservatively (to heal by secondary intention) with a very satisfactory hidden scar at 6-month follow-up. Overall, we did not find the vertical approach to add any extra limitations to the surgical exposure or dissection; meanwhile, it provided a well-recognized cosmetic advantage.Conclusion: The vertical posterior sagittal approach for excision of SCT is both feasible and advantageous in terms of the cosmetic outcome. It provides a well-hidden scar in the natal cleft and preserves normal contouring of the buttocks.Keywords: buttock, cosmesis, posterior sagittal, reconstruction, sacrococcygeal teratom

Knowledge Translation in Africa for 21(st) Century Integrative Biology: The "Know-Do Gap" in Family Planning with Contraceptive Use among Somali Women

Abstract An emerging dimension of 21(st) century integrative biology is knowledge translation in global health. The maternal mortality rate in Somalia is amongst the highest in the world. We set out to study the "know-do" gap in family planning measures in Somalia, with a view to inform future interventions for knowledge integration between theory and practice. We interviewed 360 Somali females of reproductive age and compared university-educated females to women with less or no education, using structured interviews, with a validated questionnaire. The mean age of marriage was 18 years, with 4.5 pregnancies per marriage. The mean for the desired family size was 9.3 and 10.5 children for the university-educated group and the less-educated group, respectively. Importantly, nearly 90% of the university-educated group knew about family planning, compared to 45.6% of the less-educated group. All of the less-educated group indicated that they would never use contraceptives, as compared to 43.5% of the university-educated group. Prevalence of contraceptive use among ever-married women was 4.3%. In the less-educated group, 80.6% indicated that they would not recommend contraceptives to other women as compared to 66.0% of the university-educated group. There is a huge gap between knowledge and practice regarding family planning in Somalia. The attendant reasons for this gap, such as level of education, expressed personal religious beliefs and others, are examined here. For primary health care to gain traction in Africa, we need to address the existing "know-do" gaps that are endemic and adversely impacting on global health. This is the first independent research study examining the knowledge gaps for family planning in Somalia in the last 20 years, with a view to understanding knowledge integration in a global world. The results shall guide policy makers, donors, and implementers to develop a sound family planning policy and program to improve maternal and child health in 21(st) century primary healthcare

Magnetic resonance imaging of head and neck vascular anomalies: pearls and pitfalls

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe typical MRI features of the head and neck vascular anomalies and the possible diagnostic pitfalls.Patients and methods: Patients with extracranial vascular anomalies of the head and neck, who underwent MRI examinations between January 2013 and January 2016, were included in the study. Precontrast and postcontrast T1-WI,T2-WI, with and without fat saturation were acquired. When indicated, a noncontrast MR angiography was performed. Dynamic postcontrast MRI techniques were available in six children.Results: The study included 33 patients (age ranged from 10 to 20 years, mean: 49 months). MRI confirmed the clinical diagnosis in equivocal cases, and provided proper determination of lesion extension and/or associated intracranial anomalies. The study included 10 cases of vascular tumors (hemangioma), whereas the remaining 23 cases had the diagnosis of vascular malformations (one patient with arteriovenous malformation, one with capillary malformation, seven with venous, nine with macrocystic lymphatic, and five with microcystic lymphatic malformations).Conclusion: Vascular anomalies in the head and neck are mostly diagnosed on clinical basis; however, when the history is uncertain or the diagnosis is equivocal, a well-tailored MR examination can be a single valuable diagnostic tool providing structural and functional information.Keywords: children, head and neck, hemangioma, lymphatic malformation, magnetic resonance angiography, venous malformatio

Understanding the influence of applying plant extracts and microorganism culture filtrates against barley leaf rust disease

Rust fungi are devastating plant pathogens, and several Puccinia species have exerting substantial financial impacts on global barley cultivation. Fungicides are used on a large scale as an effective method for combating phytopathogenic fungi. The negative environmental impacts of fungicides are steadily escalating on a daily basis. Consequently, researchers are currently exploring alternative approaches to mitigate the use of fungicides, such as the utilization of plant extracts. This method has proven effective due to its incorporation of natural antifungal substances. Among the nine natural elicitors that were tested, the application of plant extracts on barley seedlings resulted in an increase in the incubation and latent periods of Puccinia hordei. These periods are integral components of partial and induced resistance, effectively mitigating the incidence of barley leaf rust disease by over 70% on mature plants. Similarly, the biochemical analyses demonstrated a notable augmentation in all the tested treatments’ overall phenolics and oxidative enzyme activities (peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase). Random amplified polymorphic DNA (SCoT) test serves as a viable approach for assessing the impact of plant extracts and microorganisms on barley plants. The results obtained from this study indicate that the detection of DNA polymorphism through SCoT analysis holds a significant potential powerful tool to evaluate genetic changes compared with untreated plants although some of them tested displayed high similarities at the morphological reaction

Phenylalanine-Rich Peptides Potently Bind ESAT6, a Virulence Determinant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Concurrently Affect the Pathogen's Growth

BACKGROUND:The secretory proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) have been known to be involved in the virulence, pathogenesis as well as proliferation of the pathogen. Among this set, many proteins have been hypothesized to play a critical role at the genesis of the onset of infection, the primary site of which is invariably the human lung. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:During our efforts to isolate potential binding partners of key secretory proteins of M. tuberculosis from a human lung protein library, we isolated peptides that strongly bound the virulence determinant protein Esat6. All peptides were less than fifty amino acids in length and the binding was confirmed by in vivo as well as in vitro studies. Curiously, we found all three binders to be unusually rich in phenylalanine, with one of the three peptides a short fragment of the human cytochrome c oxidase-3 (Cox-3). The most accessible of the three binders, named Hcl1, was shown also to bind to the Mycobacterium smegmatis (M. smegmatis) Esat6 homologue. Expression of hcl1 in M. tuberculosis H37Rv led to considerable reduction in growth. Microarray analysis showed that Hcl1 affects a host of key cellular pathways in M. tuberculosis. In a macrophage infection model, the sets expressing hcl1 were shown to clear off M. tuberculosis in much greater numbers than those infected macrophages wherein the M. tuberculosis was not expressing the peptide. Transmission electron microscopy studies of hcl1 expressing M. tuberculosis showed prominent expulsion of cellular material into the matrix, hinting at cell wall damage. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:While the debilitating effects of Hcl1 on M. tuberculosis are unrelated and not because of the peptide's binding to Esat6-as the latter is not an essential protein of M. tuberculosis-nonetheless, further studies with this peptide, as well as a closer inspection of the microarray data may shed important light on the suitability of such small phenylalanine-rich peptides as potential drug-like molecules against this pathogen

Combination of the W boson polarization measurements in top quark decays using ATLAS and CMS data at \sqrt{s} = 8 TeV

The combination of measurements of the W boson polarization in top quark decays performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations is presented. The measurements are based on proton-proton collision data produced at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb^{-1} for each experiment. The measurements used events containing one lepton and having different jet multiplicities in the final state. The results are quoted as fractions of W bosons with longitudinal (F_{0}), left-handed (F_{L}), or right-handed (F_{R}) polarizations. The resulting combined measurements of the polarization fractions are F0 = 0.693 ± 0.014 and FL = 0.315 ± 0.011. The fraction F_{R} is calculated from the unitarity constraint to be F_{R} = −0.008 ± 0.007. These results are in agreement with the standard model predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics and represent an improvement in precision of 25 (29)% for F_{o} (F_{L}) with respect to the most precise single measurement. A limit on anomalous right-handed vector (VR), and left- and right-handed tensor (g_{L}, g_{R})tWb couplings is set while fixing all others to their standard model values. The allowed regions are [−0.11, 0.16] for V_{R}, [−0.08, 0.05] for g_{L}, and [−0.04, 0.02] for g_{R}, at 95% confidence level. Limits on the corresponding Wilson coefficients are also derived

Combination of the W boson polarization measurements in top quark decays using ATLAS and CMS data at s = 8 TeV

Abstract: The combination of measurements of the W boson polarization in top quark decays performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations is presented. The measurements are based on proton-proton collision data produced at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb−1 for each experiment. The measurements used events containing one lepton and having different jet multiplicities in the final state. The results are quoted as fractions of W bosons with longitudinal (F0), left-handed (FL), or right-handed (FR) polarizations. The resulting combined measurements of the polarization fractions are F0 = 0.693 ± 0.014 and FL = 0.315 ± 0.011. The fraction FR is calculated from the unitarity constraint to be FR = −0.008 ± 0.007. These results are in agreement with the standard model predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics and represent an improvement in precision of 25 (29)% for F0 (FL) with respect to the most precise single measurement. A limit on anomalous right-handed vector (VR), and left- and right-handed tensor (gL, gR) tWb couplings is set while fixing all others to their standard model values. The allowed regions are [−0.11, 0.16] for VR, [−0.08, 0.05] for gL, and [−0.04, 0.02] for gR, at 95% confidence level. Limits on the corresponding Wilson coefficients are also derived

Evaluation of the effect of sildenafil and/or doxazosin on Benign prostatic hyperplasia-related lower urinary tract symptoms and erectile dysfunction

Purpose: To verify the association between lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and erectile dysfunction (ED) and evaluate the influence of sildenafil and doxazosin either as single agents or combined on both symptoms. Material and Methods: A prospective randomized study including 150 patients presented with LUTS caused by BPH in association with clinically diagnosed ED, with age equal or more than 45 years from April 2010 to April 20011. They were categorized into three comparative groups each one containing 50 patients. These groups were comparable regarding pretreatment international prostate symptoms score (IPSS) and international index of erectile function (IIEF). The patients of the first group were given sildenafil 50 mg as monotherapy, those of the second group were given doxazosin 2 mg and those of the third group were given combination of both drugs for 4 months for each group. The main post-treatment parameters for assessment and comparison include assessment of patient′s symptoms by repeated IPS Sand IIEF, uroflowmetry and assessment of PVR. The statistics was done by use of the Qui--square test. Results: Pre-treatment parameters were assessed and compared between the three groups. After 4 months of treatment, the comparative parameters were applied to all groups and the differences were measured post-treatment regarding IPSS, erectile function score, uroflowmetry, and post-void residual (PVR) urine. Sildenafil alone caused mild improvement in IPSS, more improvement in IIEF score, and little effect on flow rate and PVR urine. Doxazosin alone caused more improvement in IPSS, flow rate and PVR urine and less improvement in IIEF score. A combination of both sildenafil and doxazosin caused more improvement in all of the comparative parameters than when each drug was given alone. Conclusions: There is a strong relationship between LUTS and ED. Doxazosin or sidenafil as a single drug could be used in treating mild or mild to moderate symptoms but more severe symptoms may usually need a combination of both drugs