Spinal Surgery Patients’ Preoperative Education Effects

Preoperative patient education (PE) has been used by many institutions to deal with patient anxiety, pain control, and overall satisfaction. Although the literature suggests PE’s effectiveness in joint reconstruction, data are missing in spinal surgery. This research  retrospectively analyzed patients having elective spinal surgery who underwent PE (spine pre-care class) from January 2016 to June 2016. Of the 160 patients surveyed, (36.5%) attended the class whereas (63.5%) did not. Results of the participants in the pre-care class, 86% were satisfied with their pain management versus 73% in the control group. There was also a trend for better overall satisfaction in the pre-care class group (88.1% vs 85, multiple regression analysis). Elderly women tend to be less satisfied with pain management and overall treatment. The study concluded that the implementation of PE has had a positive impact on patient satisfaction, especially in terms of pain management.

Expression and Functional Roles of Angiopoietin-2 in Skeletal Muscles

Angiopoietin-1 (ANGPT1) and angiopoietin-2 (ANGPT2) are angiogenesis factors that modulate endothelial cell differentiation, survival and stability. Recent studies have suggested that skeletal muscle precursor cells constitutively express ANGPT1 and adhere to recombinant ANGPT1 and ANGPT2 proteins. It remains unclear whether or not they also express ANGPT2, or if ANGPT2 regulates the myogenesis program of muscle precursors. In this study, ANGPT2 regulatory factors and the effects of ANGPT2 on proliferation, migration, differentiation and survival were identified in cultured primary skeletal myoblasts. The cellular networks involved in the actions of ANGPT2 on skeletal muscle cells were also analyzed.Primary skeletal myoblasts were isolated from human and mouse muscles. Skeletal myoblast survival, proliferation, migration and differentiation were measured in-vitro in response to recombinant ANGPT2 protein and to enhanced ANGPT2 expression delivered with adenoviruses. Real-time PCR and ELISA measurements revealed the presence of constitutive ANGPT2 expression in these cells. This expression increased significantly during myoblast differentiation into myotubes. In human myoblasts, ANGPT2 expression was induced by H(2)O(2), but not by TNFα, IL1β or IL6. ANGPT2 significantly enhanced myoblast differentiation and survival, but had no influence on proliferation or migration. ANGPT2-induced survival was mediated through activation of the ERK1/2 and PI-3 kinase/AKT pathways. Microarray analysis revealed that ANGPT2 upregulates genes involved in the regulation of cell survival, protein synthesis, glucose uptake and free fatty oxidation.Skeletal muscle precursors constitutively express ANGPT2 and this expression is upregulated during differentiation into myotubes. Reactive oxygen species exert a strong stimulatory influence on muscle ANGPT2 expression while pro-inflammatory cytokines do not. ANGPT2 promotes skeletal myoblast survival and differentiation. These results suggest that muscle-derived ANGPT2 production may play a positive role in skeletal muscle fiber repair

Cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 3 (CDKN3) upregulation is associated with unfavorable prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and shapes tumor immune microenvironment: A bioinformatics analysis

Cell cycle regulatory proteins plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of many human malignancies. Identification of their biological functions as well as their prognostic utility presents an active field of research. As a continuation of the ongoing efforts to elucidate the molecular characteristics of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC); we present a comprehensive bioinformatics study targeting the prognostic and mechanistic role of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 3 (CDKN3) in ccRCC. The ccRCC cohort from the Cancer Genome Atlas Program was accessed through the UCSC Xena browser to obtain CDKN3 mRNA expression data and their corresponding clinicopathological variables. The independent prognostic signature of CDKN3 was evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox logistic regression analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis and co-expression gene functional annotations were used to discern CDKN3-related altered molecular pathways. The tumor immune microenvironment was evaluated using TIMER 2.0 and gene expression profiling interactive analysis. CDKN3 upregulation is associated with shortened overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.325, 95% confident interval [CI]: 1.703–3.173, P < .0001) in the Cancer Genome Atlas Program ccRCC cohort. Univariate (HR: 0.426, 95% CI: 0.316–0.576, P < .001) and multivariate (HR: 0.560, 95% CI: 0.409–0.766, P < .001) Cox logistic regression analyses indicate that CDKN3 is an independent prognostic variable of the overall survival. High CDKN3 expression is associated with enrichment within the following pathways including allograph rejection, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, mitotic spindle, inflammatory response, IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling, spermatogenesis, TNF-α signaling via NF-kB pathway, complement activation, KRAS signaling, and INF-γ signaling. CDKN3 is also associated with significant infiltration of a wide spectrum of immune cells and correlates remarkably with immune-related genes. CDKN3 is a poor prognostic biomarker in ccRCC that alters many molecular pathways and impacts the tumor immune microenvironment.Scopu

Design of multiple-layer microwave absorbing structure based on rice husk and carbon nanotubes

This paper presents a multiple-layered microwave absorber using rice husk and carbon nanotube composite. The dielectric properties of each layer composite were measured and analysed. The different layer of microwave absorber enables to control the microwave absorption performance. The microwave absorption performances are demonstrated through measurements of reflectivity over the frequency range 2¿18 GHz. An improvement of microwave absorption \u3c¿20 dB is observed with respect to a high lossy composite placed at bottom layer of multiple layers. Reflectivity evaluations indicate that the composites display a great potential application as wideband electromagnetic wave absorbers

Cross-Functional Mapping to Link Lean Manufacturing and Life Cycle Assessment in Environmental Impact Reduction

In industry, carbon emissions are mainly produced from the amount of energy used in the manufacturing processes due to the burning of fossil fuels, material of products and transportation. The aim of this paper reports the synergy of integrating life cycle assessment (LCA) and Lean manufacturing to reduce the negative environmental impacts of a plastic injection moulded product. A cross-functional mapping method is used because a number of functional areas such as Lean manufacturing and LCA are involved. This work demonstrated that the adaptation of lean thinking and LCA could minimise negative environmental impacts of a product significantly

Flexible Co-Planar Waveguide (CPW)-fed y-shaped patch UWB antenna for off-body communication

This paper intends to design an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) antenna for future Internet of Things (IoT) applications for off-body Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) communication. An antenna based on the Y-shaped patch fed using co-planar waveguide (CPW) line, with a full ground plane is designed. It is implemented on two different substrates, namely a 5mm thick Rogers RO4350B and a 5-mm-thick felt textile. Parametric analysis of antenna is performed by changing its critical dimensions and monitoring parameters such as gain, bandwidth, efficiency, radiation pattern when using both substrates. Besides that, the bending effects towards reflection coefficient and radiation patterns are also studied. The final patch size with the Y-shaped slot is 36 × 40 mm2 for both substrates. The antenna is capable of providing coverage for the bands from 8 to 10 GHz. Finally, the antenna designed on RO4350B substrate outperforms the antenna designed on felt by about four times in terms of bandwidth, with 3.3 GHz (7.7–11 GHz)