A biochemical and histopathologic study showing protection and treatment of gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in rabbits using vitamin c

Gentamicin and vitamin C have been proposed as nephrotoxic and antioxidant, respectively. This study involved biochemical and histopathologic investigation showing protection and treatment of gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in rabbits using vitamin C for 26 days hypothesizing that whether vitamin C would inhibit or decrease the raised serum urea and creatinine levels. This study was conducted on 25 healthy male albino rabbits (average weight 1.5±0.2 kg), classified into 5groups: group A, B, C, D and E for nephrocurative (study-I) and  nephroprotective (study-II) studies. Control group of rabbits (group A) received only the vehicle of gentamicin ampoule. In study-I, gentamicin sulphate (GS 80 mg/kg, i.m.) was administered to group B and C rabbits for ten days, then group C rabbits received vitamin C 250 mg/Kg for remaining 16 days. Group D and E received GS 80 mg/kg and GS 80 mg/kg i.m.-vitamin C 250 mg/kg orally, respectively during whole period (26 days) of study-II. After 26 days, various biochemical parameters, i.e. serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and serum antioxidant activity, and histopathologic investigations were made. Nephrotoxicity was observed in rabbit groups B, C and D as evident from significant (p<0.05) high levels of serum creatinine and BUN and low serum antioxidantlevels as compared to the levels of control group. Decrease in the levels of serum creatinine and BUN along with the increase in serum antioxidant activity was observed after vitamin C treatment in group C. While, renal-protective role of vitamin C was seen in group E as compared to the control. In conclusion, Gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity can be  attenuated or treated using vitamin C

Evaluation of Procalcitonin Test for Early Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis in Tikrit Teaching Hospital

The diagnosis of neonatal infection is challenging because traditional markers of infection are often misleading instead of diagnosing. This study was conducted to determine Procalcitonin (PCT) level as an early marker for diagnosis of suspected sepsis in neonates in comparison with C-reactive protein, blood culture, total and differential white blood cell counts. From August, 2008 till March, 2009, 114 blood samples were collected from neonates (males and females) admitted to the pediatricsneonatal wards at Tikrit Teaching Hospital who were clinically suspected with sepsis as diagnosed by the physician in the hospital with any features suggestive of sepsis. The results of blood culture showed that 53 (46%) of samples were positive, of them 32 (60%) were males and 21 (40%) were females. The number of negative cases were 61 (54%), of them 31 (51%) were females and 30 (49%)were males. The results of identification showed that the most frequent bacterial isolates were Coagulase Negative Staphylococci and Nocardia spp. (22% for each), followed by Listeria monocytogenes 17%, Klebsiella pneumoniae, 9% Pseudomonas aeruginosa 6% and Staphylococcus aureus 6%, while (Citrobacter diversus, Serratia marscesens, Serratia liquifascens, Lactobacillus spp., Peptostreptococcus spp., Micrococcus spp., Streptococcus pyogenes) were frequently less isolated recording 2% for each . The antibiotics susceptibility test revealed that Gram negative isolates showed high resistance to antibiotics used in the present study. Each isolate of the Gram positive bacteria showed different pattern of resistance against the antibiotics used. Results of virulence factor showed that 85%, 100%, 100% , 100% and 62% of Gram negative isolates and 61%, 100% , 89%, 94% and 78% of Gram positive isolated produced Urease , Hemolysin, Lipase, Lecithinase and alkaline protease, respectively. Results of routine hematological tests at which the differences were statistically significant showed that 33% of culture positive cases had leucopenia, 19% of cases had leukocytosis, while the rest were in the category of normal range. For CRP, the differences were not significant among culture positive and culture negative cases. With reference to PCT test which had been measured using the immunochromatographic semi-quantitative method. The results showed that 21% of culture positive cases were with PCT level with high levels distributed among levels of PCT≥0.5 ≥2 ≥10 ng/ml. As for culture negative cases, 49% of PCT were systemic infections cannot be excluded though they were culture negative. In addition PCT results did not fit with CRP all the time since some cases recorded higher level of PCT ≥10 ng/ml despite they were negative for CRP. The comparison between results of PCT and WBC for the same performed cases showed that 68% of cases were in the category of normal WBC range, meanwhile they had high level of PCT. Only 18% were in the category of leukocytosis, and the rest of percentage were in the category of leucopenia. When PCT was compared with other routinely measured parameters used in this study, It seemed to be significantly more sensitive in sepsis diagnosis. Accordingly, we can conclude that PCT is a more sensitive marker than other traditional tests (blood culture, CRP and WBC count) that could be used in early diagnosis of bacterial sepsis in neonate

Modified TNO-Blake model for aerofoil surface pressure prediction with canopies

Session: Airframe / High-Lift Noise IView Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-3203.vidThe modelling of the surface pressure spectrum beneath a turbulent boundary layer near the trailing edge of an aerofoil with bio-inspired surface treatments, called canopies, is investigated. Canopies are simply a cylindrical rods uniformly spaced along the span of the aerofoil. The velocity measurements indicated that the flow at the trailing edge of an aerofoil treated with canopies is localised and shows periodic behaviour across the span with treatment spacing. As a result, the mean-flow velocity gradient along the span (@U1=@x3) cannot be assumed as zero for x2=h = 4, which is shown in this paper. Therefore, the original surface pressure solution of Poisson’s equation is modified by introducing an additional source term consisting of the mean-shear contribution, given as @U1=@x3 @u3=@x1. Furthermore, the surface pressure attenuation due to the canopies shows a periodic behaviour across the span for treatments with an Open-Area-Ratio (OAR) between 70% and 90 %. This observation is consistent with our previous experimental results; therefore, the primary motivation for proposing a 3D TNO-Blake model, accounting for the interaction between the gradient of the stream-wise mean velocity along the span and span-wise fluctuating component along the stream. The model is built based on the inputs from Large Eddy Simulation results and additional wind tunnel measurements.EPSRC under grant No EP/V038273/1

Sequelae due to bacterial meningitis among African children: a systematic literature review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>African children have some of the highest rates of bacterial meningitis in the world. Bacterial meningitis in Africa is associated with high case fatality and frequent neuropsychological sequelae. The objective of this study is to present a comprehensive review of data on bacterial meningitis sequelae in children from the African continent.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a systematic literature search to identify studies from Africa focusing on children aged between 1 month to 15 years with laboratory-confirmed bacterial meningitis. We extracted data on neuropsychological sequelae (hearing loss, vision loss, cognitive delay, speech/language disorder, behavioural problems, motor delay/impairment, and seizures) and mortality, by pathogen.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 37 articles were included in the final analysis representing 21 African countries and 6,029 children with confirmed meningitis. In these studies, nearly one fifth of bacterial meningitis survivors experienced in-hospital sequelae (median = 18%, interquartile range (IQR) = 13% to 27%). About a quarter of children surviving pneumococcal meningitis and <it>Haemophilus influenzae </it>type b (Hib) meningitis had neuropsychological sequelae by the time of hospital discharge, a risk higher than in meningococcal meningitis cases (median = 7%). The highest in-hospital case fatality ratios observed were for pneumococcal meningitis (median = 35%) and Hib meningitis (median = 25%) compared to meningococcal meningitis (median = 4%). The 10 post-discharge studies of children surviving bacterial meningitis were of varying quality. In these studies, 10% of children followed-up post discharge died (range = 0% to 18%) and a quarter of survivors had neuropsychological sequelae (range = 3% to 47%) during an average follow-up period of 3 to 60 months.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Bacterial meningitis in Africa is associated with high mortality and risk of neuropsychological sequelae. Pneumococcal and Hib meningitis kill approximately one third of affected children and cause clinically evident sequelae in a quarter of survivors prior to hospital discharge. The three leading causes of bacterial meningitis are vaccine preventable, and routine use of conjugate vaccines could provide substantial health and economic benefits through the prevention of childhood meningitis cases, deaths and disability.</p

VEGFA Upregulates FLJ10540 and Modulates Migration and Invasion of Lung Cancer via PI3K/AKT Pathway

BACKGROUND: Lung adenocarcinoma is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among both men and women in the world. Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, the mortality rates with an overall 5-year survival of only 15%. This high mortality is probably attributable to early metastasis. Although several well-known markers correlated with poor/metastasis prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients by immunohistochemistry was reported, the molecular mechanisms of lung adenocarcinoma development are still not clear. To explore novel molecular markers and their signaling pathways will be crucial for aiding in treatment of lung adenocarcinoma patients. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To identify novel lung adenocarcinoma-associated /metastasis genes and to clarify the underlying molecular mechanisms of these targets in lung cancer progression, we created a bioinformatics scheme consisting of integrating three gene expression profile datasets, including pairwise lung adenocarcinoma, secondary metastatic tumors vs. benign tumors, and a series of invasive cell lines. Among the novel targets identified, FLJ10540 was overexpressed in lung cancer tissues and is associated with cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, we employed two co-expression strategies to identify in which pathway FLJ10540 was involved. Lung adenocarcinoma array profiles and tissue microarray IHC staining data showed that FLJ10540 and VEGF-A, as well as FLJ10540 and phospho-AKT exhibit positive correlations, respectively. Stimulation of lung cancer cells with VEGF-A results in an increase in FLJ10540 protein expression and enhances complex formation with PI3K. Treatment with VEGFR2 and PI3K inhibitors affects cell migration and invasion by activating the PI3K/AKT pathway. Moreover, knockdown of FLJ10540 destabilizes formation of the P110-alpha/P85-alpha-(PI3K) complex, further supporting the participation of FLJ10540 in the VEGF-A/PI3K/AKT pathway. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This finding set the stage for further testing of FLJ10540 as a new therapeutic target for treating lung cancer and may contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies that are able to block the PI3K/AKT pathway in lung cancer cells

Hepatitis C virus to hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatitis C virus causes acute and chronic hepatitis and can lead to permanent liver damage and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a significant number of patients via oxidative stress, insulin resistance (IR), fibrosis, liver cirrhosis and HCV induced steatosis. HCV induced steatosis and oxidative stress causes steato-hepatitis and these pathways lead to liver injury or HCC in chronic HCV infection. Steatosis and oxidative stress crosstalk play an important role in liver damage in HCV infection. This Review illustrates viral and host factors which induce Oxidative stress, steatosis and leads toward HCC. It also expresses Molecular cascade which leads oxidative stress and steatosis to HCC

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research

Overview of JET results for optimising ITER operation

The JET 2019–2020 scientific and technological programme exploited the results of years of concerted scientific and engineering work, including the ITER-like wall (ILW: Be wall and W divertor) installed in 2010, improved diagnostic capabilities now fully available, a major neutral beam injection upgrade providing record power in 2019–2020, and tested the technical and procedural preparation for safe operation with tritium. Research along three complementary axes yielded a wealth of new results. Firstly, the JET plasma programme delivered scenarios suitable for high fusion power and alpha particle (α) physics in the coming D–T campaign (DTE2), with record sustained neutron rates, as well as plasmas for clarifying the impact of isotope mass on plasma core, edge and plasma-wall interactions, and for ITER pre-fusion power operation. The efficacy of the newly installed shattered pellet injector for mitigating disruption forces and runaway electrons was demonstrated. Secondly, research on the consequences of long-term exposure to JET-ILW plasma was completed, with emphasis on wall damage and fuel retention, and with analyses of wall materials and dust particles that will help validate assumptions and codes for design and operation of ITER and DEMO. Thirdly, the nuclear technology programme aiming to deliver maximum technological return from operations in D, T and D–T benefited from the highest D–D neutron yield in years, securing results for validating radiation transport and activation codes, and nuclear data for ITER