Congenital Diseases of Esophagus

Esophageal atresia (EA) presents some of the greatest technical hurdles that pediatric has to face. Postnatally, the classical clinical presentation of an infant with EA is an abnormally mucousy infant who is drooling excessive amount of saliva. Diagnosis confirmed when an orogastric tube cannot be passed through the mouth into the stomach. Examination should assess the as cardiac, anal limb. The purpose of the surgery is to divide the trachea esophageal fistula (TEF) and to restore esophageal continuity blind-ending upper esophageal. Achalasia is an uncommon disorder of esophagus dysmotility. Patients typically present with a history of progressively worsening dysphagia that begins with solid foods. The initial diagnosis test in child with dysphasia is usually a contrast esophagogram. Classic findings include a dilated, dysmotile esophagus and a bird’s beak deformity at the gastroesophageal junction. The main treatments of achalasia are esophageal myotomy, balloon dilation or botulism toxin. Esophageal diverticula are often first suspected on Chest X ray(CXR) due to presenting symptoms. These lesions can cause wheezing, dyspnea, hemoptysis and recurrent pneumonia due to airway compression and dysphasia due to esophagus compression. These duplications should be further investigated by CT scan or Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The preferred method of treatment is thoracoscopy or thoracotomy

Emergency Abdominal Surgery in Infants and Children

The term acute abdomen refers to sudden severe abdominal pain with unclear etiology that is less than 24 h in duration. In children, acute abdominal pain presents a diagnostic dilemma. Although many cases of acute abdominal pain are benign, some of them need rapid diagnosis and treatment to minimize morbidity. The present chapter provides an overview of abdominal surgical emergencies in children and discusses the most common disorders that cause surgical acute abdomen

Antioxidant Activity and Flavonoid Content of Matricaria Chamomilla Extracts from Different Populations of Iran

Matricaria chamomilla is a valuable medicinal plant belonging to the Asteraceae family. Its medicinal and pharmaceutical impacts are correlated to major flavonoid compounds like apigenin. In this investigation, methanolic extracts of M. chamomilla inflorescence gathered from six natural populations were evaluated for their phytochemical content and antioxidant activity. The content of total flavonoid and phenol modified from 3.72 to 7.94 mg g-1 DW and 1.37 to 3.51 mg g-1 DW, respectively. Flavonoid compositions revealed significant differences among six populations, and the highest apigenin (1.27 % (w/w)) and apigenin-7-glucoside (0.86 %(w/w)) contents were recognized in MD populations, respectively. Both PCA and Pearson's correlation analyses revealed total phenol, flavonoid, apigenin and apigenin-7-glucoside were negatively correlated with the IC50 of DPPH activity and EC50 of reducing power. Altitude and precipitation indicated the positive and negative effects on phytochemical contents, respectively. These results can provide a theoretical basis for getting the targeted antioxidant phytochemicals of M. chamomilla for pharmaceutical and food industries, and also give a science for selection of the best population for cell culture and secondary metabolite production in future

The Wastewater Management of Zarand Thermal Power Plant: Assessment of the Wastewater Treatment Methods, Cost Analysis, and Suggesting the Best Method

Background: Industry has a major role in the pollution of water supplies as well as the highest potential for reducing the consumption and implementing water and wastewater management plans. The aim of this study was to identify the best treatment method for the wastewater of Zarand thermal power plant, so that it can be implemented technically and economically and reused with least adverse environmental effects. Methods: In this study, the available data about the current status of the region was collected from the relevant organizations. Then, the status of Zarand thermal power plant in terms of the level of produced energy, production process, the type of chemicals and fuel used, the volume of water consumed and sources of water supply, the quantitative and qualitative estimation of the effluent, and the current status of collecting and discharging it were evaluated and analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Results: The results show that water cooling units produced the highest level of wastewater in Zarand thermal power plant. Considering the cost analysis, and the advantages and disadvantages of the wastewater treatment systems, the biological sulphate removal system using activated carbon is recommended for the wastewater treatment of Zarand thermal power plant. Conclusion: The results show that environmental changes resulted from discharging the wastewater of Zarand thermal power plant into the environment can be prevented by an appropriate management, and the wastewater can be reused in the best way

Osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells cultured on PLLA scaffold coated with Wharton's jelly

Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) electrospun nanofiber scaffold is one of the most commonly used synthetic polymer scaffolds for bone tissue engineering application. However, PLLA is hydrophobic in nature, hence does not maintain proper cell adhesion and tissue formation, moreover, it cannot provide the osteo-inductive environment due to inappropriate surface characteristic and the lack of surface motives participating in the first cellular events. To modify these shortcomings different approaches have been used, among those the most commonly used one is coating of the surface of the electrospun nanofiber with natural materials. In this work Wharton’s jelly (WJ), a tissue which surrounds the umbilical cord vessels, reaches in high amounts of extracellular matrix (ECM) components mainly; collagen, hyaluronic acid and several sulphated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) were used to cover the surface of electrospun PLLA nanofiber scaffolds. The surface morphology of the nanofiber scaffold was evaluated via scanning electron microscope, and the in vitro osteogenic differentiation potential was determined by MTT assay and common osteogenic marker tests such as alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium deposition tests. Coating of WJ could not change the surface morphology and diameter of the nanofibers. However, WJPLLA scaffolds showed higher proliferation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) than tissue culture plate (TCP) and pristine PLLA scaffolds, moreover, WJ-PPLA scaffold demonstrated significant alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium mineralization than either TCP or PLLA nanofiber scaffolds

Effect of irritable bowel syndrome on sleep quality and quality of life of inflammatory bowel disease in clinical remission

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as a chronic and debilitating disease is affected by sleep disturbance which increases the risk of malignancy. Sleep disturbance is more common in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and few reported studies have assessed its role in IBD. We evaluated the effect of IBS on sleep quality and quality of life (QOL) of IBD patients in clinical remission. Methods: In a cross‑sectional study, 115 IBD patients in clinical remission aged from 14 to 70 years referred to gastroenterology outpatient departments and private gastroenterology offices from 2007 to 2016. Patients considered in four groups (with/without IBS). The Revised “Rome III criteria” used for diagnosing IBS. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire and the health‑related QOL questionnaire used for evaluating sleep quality and QOL. Results: About 85 (73.9%) cases had ulcerative colitis (UC) and 30 (26.1%) cases had Crohn’s disease (CD). Forty (34.8%) cases had IBD + IBS. Poor sleep quality in UC + IBS (OR: 0.018, P = 0.003) and UC (OR: 0.016, P = 0.002) was less than CD. Diseases extent in left side colitis (OR: 0.064, P = 0.016) were less than with pancolitis. Sleep quality affected by quality of life (IBDQ) (P = 0.048). Mean quality of life (IBDQ) in patients who had poor sleep was 11% less than those with good sleep. Conclusions: The syndrome of IBS affects the sleep quality of IBD in clinical remission, especially in CD. Its additive effect with IBD may worsen symptoms that correlated with sleep disturbance, such as pain, psychological and physical condition, and QOL. Keywords: Inflammatory bowel diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, quality of life, slee

Landslide susceptibility mapping: machine and ensemble learning based on remote sensing big data

Predicting landslide occurrences can be difficult. However, failure to do so can be catastrophic, causing unwanted tragedies such as property damage, community displacement, and human casualties. Research into landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) attempts to alleviate such catastrophes through the identification of landslide prone areas. Computational modelling techniques have been successful in related disaster scenarios, which motivate this work to explore such modelling for LSM. In this research, the potential of supervised machine learning and ensemble learning is investigated. Firstly, the Flexible Discriminant Analysis (FDA) supervised learning algorithm is trained for LSM and compared against other algorithms that have been widely used for the same purpose, namely Generalized Logistic Models (GLM), Boosted Regression Trees (BRT or GBM), and Random Forest (RF). Next, an ensemble model consisting of all four algorithms is implemented to examine possible performance improvements. The dataset used to train and test all the algorithms consists of a landslide inventory map of 227 landslide locations. From these sources, 13 conditioning factors are extracted to be used in the models. Experimental evaluations are made based on True Skill Statistic (TSS), the Receiver Operation characteristic (ROC) curve and kappa index. The results show that the best TSS (0.6986), ROC (0.904) and kappa (0.6915) were obtained by the ensemble model. FDA on its own seems effective at modelling landslide susceptibility from multiple data sources, with performance comparable to GLM. However, it slightly underperforms when compared to GBM (BRT) and RF. RF seems most capable compared to GBM, GLM, and FDA, when dealing with all conditioning factors

Recent Advancements in Aptamer-bioconjugates: Sharpening Stones for Breast and Prostate Cancers Targeting

Breast and prostate cancers are common types of cancers with various strategies, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, for their therapy. Since these methods have undesired side effects and poor target affinity, neoteric strategies—known as aptamer-based smart drug delivery systems (SDDSs)—have been developed in recent years to overcome the obstacles of current treatment, and investigated for a clinical trial. The high affinity and versatility of aptamers for binding to the corresponding targets make them highly noticeable agents in the drug delivery domains. In addition to their exceptional benefits, aptamers are able to overcome tumor resistance because of their high selectivity and low toxicity. Furthermore, aptamers can conjugate with various drugs, nanoparticles and antibodies and effectively deliver them to the specific breast and prostate cells. This review highlights the current researches in aptamer-conjugate developments for targeting breast and prostate cancers, with the special focus on the nanoparticle-aptamer bioconjugates, systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) system and SDDS, especially cutting-edge articles from 2008 to present. Finally, the future prospects and challenges are described

Burgeoning Polymer Nano Blends for Improved Controlled Drug Release: A Review

With continual rapid developments in the biomedical field and understanding of the important mechanisms and pharmacokinetics of biological molecules, controlled drug delivery systems (CDDSs) have been at the forefront over conventional drug delivery systems. Over the past several years, scientists have placed boundless energy and time into exploiting a wide variety of excipients, particularly diverse polymers, both natural and synthetic. More recently, the development of nano polymer blends has achieved noteworthy attention due to their amazing properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and more importantly, their pivotal role in controlled and sustained drug release in vitro and in vivo. These compounds come with a number of effective benefits for improving problems of targeted or controlled drug and gene delivery systems; thus, they have been extensively used in medical and pharmaceutical applications. Additionally, they are quite attractive for wound dressings, textiles, tissue engineering, and biomedical prostheses. In this sense, some important and workable natural polymers (namely, chitosan (CS), starch and cellulose) and some applicable synthetic ones (such as poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly-glycolic acid (PGA)) have played an indispensable role over the last two decades for their therapeutic effects owing to their appealing and renewable biological properties. According to our data, this is the first review article highlighting CDDSs composed of diverse natural and synthetic nano biopolymers, blended for biological purposes, mostly over the past five years; other reviews have just briefly mentioned the use of such blended polymers. We, additionally, try to make comparisons between various nano blending systems in terms of improved sustained and controlled drug release behavior