Concurrent Multilocular Cystic Renal Cell Carcinoma and Leiomyoma in the Same Kidney: Previously Unreported Association

We present an unusual case of concurrent occurrence of a multilocular cystic renal cell carcinoma and a leiomyoma in the same kidney of a patient with no evident clinical symptoms. A 38-year-old man was found incidentally to have a cystic right renal mass on computed tomography. Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy was performed under a preoperative diagnosis of cystic renal cell carcinoma. Histology revealed a multilocular cystic renal cell carcinoma and a leiomyoma. This is the first report of this kind of presentation

Prognostic Significance of Infection Acquisition Sites in Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis: Nosocomial versus Community Acquired

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is an ascitic fluid infection as a complication of end stage liver disease. The outcome is related to the severity of hepatorenal function, gastrointestinal bleeding, and many others; however it is not well known whether the infection acquisition sites have an effect on the prognosis of SBP. In order to identify the prognostic significance of the acquisition sites, we studied 106 patients who were diagnosed as culture positive SBP between October 1998 and August 2003. Thirty-two episodes were nosocomial and 74 were community acquired. Gram-negative bacilli such as Escherichia coli were dominant in both of the nosocomial and community-acquired SBPs. Despite significantly higher resistance to cefotaxime in nosocomial isolates compared to community-acquired isolates (77.8% vs. 13.6%, p=0.001), no difference was found regarding short or long term prognosis. Infection acquisition sites were not related to short or long term prognosis either. Shock, gastrointestinal bleeding and renal dysfunction were related to short term prognosis. Only Child-Pugh class C was identified as an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival

Neutron scattering sum rules, symmetric exchanges, and helicoidal magnetism in MnSb2O6

MnSb2O6 is based on the noncentrosymmetric P321 space group with magnetic Mn2+ (S=5/2, L≈0) spins ordering below TN=12K in a cycloidal structure. The spin rotation plane was found to be tilted away from the c axis [Kinoshita, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 047201 (2016)10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.047201] resulting as a helicoidal ground state, which we refer as the tilted structure. In our previous diffraction study [Chan, Phys. Rev. B 106, 064403 (2022)10.1103/PhysRevB.106.064403] we found no evidence that this tilted structure is favored over the pure cycloidal order (referred as the untilted structure). The ground-state magnetic structure, expected to be built and originate from seven nearest-neighbor Heisenberg exchange constants, has been shown to be coupled to the underlying crystallographic chirality with polar domain switching being reported. We apply neutron spectroscopy to extract these symmetric exchange constants. Given the high complexity of the magnetic exchange network, crystallographic structure and complications fitting many parameter linear spin-wave models, we take advantage of multiplexed neutron instrumentation to use the first moment sum rule of neutron scattering to estimate these symmetric exchange constants. The first moment of neutron scattering provides a way of deriving the Heisenberg exchange constant between two neighboring spins if the relative angle and distance of the two ordered spins is known. We show that the first moment sum rule combined with the known magnetic ordering wavevector fixes six of the seven exchange constants. The remaining exchange constant is not determined by this analysis because of the equal spatial bond distances present for different chiral exchange interactions. However, we find this parameter is fixed by the magnon dispersion near the magnetic zone boundary, which is not sensitive to the tilting of the global magnetic structure. We then use these parameters to calculate the low-energy spin-waves in the Néel state to reproduce the neutron response without strong antisymmetric coupling. Using Green's response functions, the stability of long-wavelength excitations in the context of our proposed untilted magnetic structures is then discussed. The results show the presence of strong symmetric exchange constants for the chiral exchange pathways and illustrate an underlying coupling between crystallographic and magnetic "chirality"through predominantly symmetric exchange. We further argue that the excitations can be consistently modelled in terms of an untilted magnetic structure in the presence of symmetric-only exchange constants

The Pathogenetic Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in Aminonucleoside Nephrosis

We studied the pathogenetic role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in rats with puromycin aminonucleoside nephrosis (PAN). Heavy albuminuria with markedly decreased density of the anionic sites (AS) on glomerular basement membrane (GBM) (2. 6 ± O. 98 compared to 20. 0 ± 1. 61 AS/l,OOOnm GBM in control) developed 7 days after PA injection. The malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in kidney homogenates increased gradually (1. 16 ± O. 18 at day -1 to 1. 97 ± O. 23/g protein at day 5). While catalase or dimethyl sulfoxide, administered with PA, did not affect the course of PAN. superoxide dismutase and allopurinol reduced proteinuria and decreased loss of the AS (11. 7 ± 2. 80 and 13, 7 ± 1. 27 AS/l.000nm GBM, reo spectively) at day 7. These findings suggest that proteinuria in PAN results from the loss of GBM AS. in which ROS generated by xanthine oxidase system plays an import. ant role

Synergistic Antibacterial Effects of Metallic Nanoparticle Combinations

© The Author(s) 2019.Metallic nanoparticles have unique antimicrobial properties that make them suitable for use within medical and pharmaceutical devices to prevent the spread of infection in healthcare. The use of nanoparticles in healthcare is on the increase with silver being used in many devices. However, not all metallic nanoparticles can target and kill all disease-causing bacteria. To overcome this, a combination of several different metallic nanoparticles were used in this study to compare effects of multiple metallic nanoparticles when in combination than when used singly, as single elemental nanoparticles (SENPs), against two common hospital acquired pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas. aeruginosa). Flow cytometry LIVE/DEAD assay was used to determine rates of cell death within a bacterial population when exposed to the nanoparticles. Results were analysed using linear models to compare effectiveness of three different metallic nanoparticles, tungsten carbide (WC), silver (Ag) and copper (Cu), in combination and separately. Results show that when the nanoparticles are placed in combination (NPCs), antimicrobial effects significantly increase than when compared with SENPs (P < 0.01). This study demonstrates that certain metallic nanoparticles can be used in combination to improve the antimicrobial efficiency in destroying morphologically distinct pathogens within the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry.Peer reviewe

Measuring every particle's size from three-dimensional imaging experiments

Often experimentalists study colloidal suspensions that are nominally monodisperse. In reality these samples have a polydispersity of 4-10%. At the level of an individual particle, the consequences of this polydispersity are unknown as it is difficult to measure an individual particle size from microscopy. We propose a general method to estimate individual particle radii within a moderately concentrated colloidal suspension observed with confocal microscopy. We confirm the validity of our method by numerical simulations of four major systems: random close packing, colloidal gels, nominally monodisperse dense samples, and nominally binary dense samples. We then apply our method to experimental data, and demonstrate the utility of this method with results from four case studies. In the first, we demonstrate that we can recover the full particle size distribution {\it in situ}. In the second, we show that accounting for particle size leads to more accurate structural information in a random close packed sample. In the third, we show that crystal nucleation occurs in locally monodisperse regions. In the fourth, we show that particle mobility in a dense sample is correlated to the local volume fraction.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Differential Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinases and Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinases in Thioacetamide-Induced Chronic Liver Injury

Hepatic fibrogenesis, a complex process that involves a marked accumulation of extracellular matrix components, activation of cells capable of producing matrix materials, cytokine release, and tissue remodeling, is regulated by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). The MMP-TIMP balance can regulate liver fibrogenesis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression patterns of MMPs and TIMPs during thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver fibrogenesis. Chronic liver injury was induced with TAA (200 mg/kg i.p.) for 4 or 7 weeks in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Hepatic injury and fibrosis were assessed by hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining, and collagen deposition was confirmed by Sirius Red staining. The level of hepatic injury was quantified by serological analysis. The transcriptional and translational levels of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), MMPs, and TIMPs in the liver were measured by Western blotting, RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry. MMP, TIMP, and α-SMA were observed along fibrotic septa and portal spaces around the lobules. TAA treatment increased transcription of both MMPs and TIMPs, but only TIMPs showed increased translation. The dominant expression of TIMPs may regulate the function of MMPs to maintain liver fibrosis induced by TAA

Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex infection in an immunocompetent pregnant woman

BACKGROUND: Disseminated mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) occurs mainly in immunocompromised hosts, which is associated with abnormal cellular immunity. CASE PRESENTATION: A 26-year-old pregnant woman presented with fever and general weakness. Miliary lung nodules were noted on chest X-ray. Under the impression of miliary tuberculosis, anti-tuberculosis medication was administered. However, the patient was not improved. Further work-up demonstrated MAC in the sputum and placenta. The patient was treated successfully with clarithromycin-based combination regimen. CONCLUSION: This appears to be the first case of disseminated MAC in an otherwise healthy pregnant woman. Clinicians should be alert for the diagnosis of MAC infection in diverse clinical conditions

Rapid reduction versus abrupt quitting for smokers who want to stop soon: a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial

Background: The standard way to stop smoking is to stop abruptly on a quit day with no prior reduction in consumption of cigarettes. Many smokers feel that reduction is natural and if reduction programmes were offered, many more might take up treatment. Few trials of reduction versus abrupt cessation have been completed. Most are small, do not use pharmacotherapy, and do not meet the standards necessary to obtain a marketing authorisation for a pharmacotherapy.\ud Design/Methods: We will conduct a non-inferiority andomised trial of rapid reduction versus standard abrupt cessation among smokers who want to stop smoking. In the reduction arm,participants will be advised to reduce smoking consumption by half in the first week and to 25% of baseline in the second, leading up to a quit day at which participants will stop smoking completely.This will be assisted by nicotine patches and an acute form of nicotine replacement therapy. In the abrupt arm participants will use nicotine patches only, whilst smoking as normal, for two weeks prior to a quit day, at which they will also stop smoking completely. Smokers in either arm will have standard withdrawal orientated behavioural support programme with a combination of nicotine patches and acute nicotine replacement therapy post-cessation.\ud Outcomes/Follow-up: The primary outcome of interest will be prolonged abstinence from smoking, with secondary trial outcomes of point prevalence, urges to smoke and withdrawal\ud symptoms. Follow up will take place at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 6 months post-quit day