Development of breathable and liquid/microbes barrier woven surgical gowns for hospital usage

An attempt has been made to develop a breathable woven surgical gown with antimicrobial and liquid repellent properties by finishing with nanoparticles of silver and fluorocarbon using pad-dry-cure method. Box-Behnken design has been used to optimize the coating parameters, i.e. concentrations of nanosilver (NS), nanofluorocarbon (NFC) and binder. The selected coating parameters has decisive influence on the fabric properties, such as air permeability, moisture vapour permeability, antimicrobial and tensile behaviour. The optimum coating parameters such as concentrations of NS, NFC and binder result in improved air permeability and moisture vapour permeability of the fabric for 3 g/L of NS and 40 g/L of NFC. The antibacterial activity of fabric is found to be higher for increased NS concentration and lower for increased NFC. In case of tensile properties of coated fabrics, the increase in NS concentration increases the tensile strength and decreases the bending modulus of fabrics

Effect of Preoperative Finasteride Therapy on Perioperative Blood Loss in Transurethral Resection of Prostate for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Prospective Randomized Placebo Controlled study

BACKGROUND : Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the common benign tumor in men more than 50 years of age. 5 α reductase inhibitors like Finasteride and Dutasteride are commonly used in the medical management of BPH due to its prostatic volume reduction properties secondary to inhibition of the androgen Dihydro-testosterone. Studies have reported that short course of preoperative Finasteride reduces the peri-operative blood loss following TURP for BPH. But this is not practiced widely. Therefore we conducted this study to evaluate the effect of finasteride on intra-operative and postoperative blood loss following TURP, which could resolve some of the controversies over the use of this drug. METHODS : one Hundred patients undergoing TURP for BPH were randomly allocated in to two groups with 50 patients in each group. Group A patients received tablet finasteride 5 milligram once a day 2 weeks prior to surgery and group B patients received only placebo. Intraoperative blood loss, post operative hemoglobin, PCV drops and operative time, resected tissue weight and tissue microvessel density was assessed. Post operative follow- up was done at one month maximum urinary flow rate and IPSS score was assessed. RESULTS : The demographic parameters were comparable in two groups. The mean hemoglobin drop in group A & B was 1.7 and 2.8 grams respectively. The mean operative time and resected tissue weight in both group A &B were 46 minutes, 27.7 grams & 53 minutes, 24.1 grams respectively. In finasteride group there was significant reduction of Intraoperative blood loss, microvessel density and post operative complications like clot retention, need for blood transfusion and urinary tract infection. CONCLUSION : preoperative short course finasteride therapy definitely reduces the peri-operative blood loss following TURP for BPH

Incidence of neurosensory deficits following surgical removal of mandibular third molars: a prospective clinical study

Background: The aim of this prospective study was to determine the incidences of inferior alveolar nerve and lingual nerve deficit following surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars and to evaluate the risk factors responsible for these postoperative neurosensory deficits.Methods: A total of 80 patients who reported to department of oral and maxillofacial surgery, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India requiring surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molar were included in this cross-sectional study. Standard surgical procedure was performed. All patients were reassessed one week post-surgery. Subjectively reported altered sensations were recorded and objective assessments were performed with light touch test, two-point discrimination threshold and pin-pick pain threshold. The collected data was analyzed using the chi square test to find out any clinical relevance.Results: There was no inferior alveolar nerve related neurosensory deficits and 6 (7.5%) resulted in lingual nerve related neurosensory deficits. The incidence of LN deficit for mesioangular, horizontal, distoangular was 1.3%, 3.8% and 2.5% respectively. Type of impaction assumed a mild statistical significance (p = 0.050).Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of careful preoperative clinical and radiographic assessment of patients where third molar surgery is planned. The surgical technique of third molar removal is also likely to have great impact on the outcome

An unusual presentation of primary renal lymphoma: A case report

Lymphomatous involvement of the kidney is often seen as a part of the disseminated disease but primary renal lymphoma is very rare. It is essential to differentiate between renal cell carcinoma and renal lymphoma in patients presenting with renal masses. The prognosis is usually poor with a median survival less than a year. We present the case of a 81-year-old male who presented with type B symptoms and was diagnosed to have primary lymphoma of the kidney and discuss briefly about the primary renal lymphoma

An Autocatalytic System of Photooxidation-Driven Substitution Reactions on a Fe^II₄L₆Cage Framework

The functions of life are accomplished by systems exhibiting nonlinear kinetics: autocatalysis, in particular, is integral to the signal amplification that allows for biological information processing. Novel synthetic autocatalytic systems provide a foundation for the design of artificial chemical networks capable of carrying out complex functions. Here we report a few Feᴵᴵ₄L₆ cages containing BODIPY chromophores having tuneable photosensitizing properties. Electron-rich anilines were observed to displace electrondeficient anilines at the dynamic-covalent imine bonds of these cages. When iodoaniline residues were incorporated, heavy-atom effects led to enhanced ¹O₂ production. The incorporation of (methylthio)aniline residues into a cage allowed for the design of an autocatalytic system: oxidation of the methylthio groups into sulfoxides make them electron-deficient and allows their displacement by iodoanilines, generating a better photocatalyst and accelerating the reaction.This work was funded by the European Research Council (259352).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ange.20150704

Stimuli-Responsive Metal-Ligand Assemblies.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the European Research Council are acknowledged for financial support.This is the accepted manuscript of a paper published in Chemical Reviews (McConnell AJ, Wood CS, Neelakandan PP, Nitschke JR, Chemical Reviews (2015) 115(15):7729-7793. doi:10.1021/cr500632f). The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/cr500632

Photoinduced energy- and electron-transfer from a photoactive coordination cage to bound guests.

In a coordination cage which contains an array of twelve naphthyl chromophores surrounding a central cavity, photoinduced energy or electron-transfer can occur from the chromophore array to the bound guest in supramolecular host/guest complexes

Higher Plant Cytochrome b5 Polypeptides Modulate Fatty Acid Desaturation

BACKGROUND: Synthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the endoplasmic reticulum of plants typically involves the fatty acid desaturases FAD2 and FAD3, which use cytochrome b(5) (Cb5) as an electron donor. Higher plants are reported to have multiple isoforms of Cb5, in contrast to a single Cb5 in mammals and yeast. Despite the wealth of information available on the roles of FAD2 and FAD3 in PUFA synthesis, information regarding the contributions of various Cb5 isoforms in desaturase-mediated reactions is limited. RESULTS: The present functional characterization of Cb5 polypeptides revealed that all Arabidopsis Cb5 isoforms are not similarly efficient in ω-6 desaturation, as evidenced by significant variation in their product outcomes in yeast-based functional assays. On the other hand, characterization of Cb5 polypeptides of soybean (Glycine max) suggested that similar ω-6 desaturation efficiencies were shared by various isoforms. With regard to ω-3 desaturation, certain Cb5 genes of both Arabidopsis and soybean were shown to facilitate the accumulation of more desaturation products than others when co-expressed with their native FAD3. Additionally, similar trends of differential desaturation product accumulation were also observed with most Cb5 genes of both soybean and Arabidopsis even if co-expressed with non-native FAD3. CONCLUSIONS: The present study reports the first description of the differential nature of the Cb5 genes of higher plants in fatty acid desaturation and further suggests that ω-3/ω-6 desaturation product outcome is determined by the nature of both the Cb5 isoform and the fatty acid desaturases