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Abstract Introduction Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare cancer with poor patient survival. Female gender has been identified as a positive prognostic factor. Recently, it has been suggested that the expression of estrogen receptor β in malignant mesothelioma leads to tumor suppression and a better prognosis. Case presentation We report the case of a 48-year-old Caucasian woman who is alive and disease-free seven years after the initial diagnosis and treatment of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. Conclusion This patient's long survival may be attributable to a combination of factors, including minimal disease, complete cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy plus the estrogen receptor β positivity of the tumor.

In porous water filters, the transport and entrapment of contaminants can be modeled as a classic mass transport problem, which employs the conventional convection–dispersion equation to predict the transport of species existing in trace amounts. Using the volume-averaging method (VAM), the upscaling has revealed two possible macroscopic equations for predicting contaminant concentrations in the filters. The first equation is the classical convection–dispersion equation, which incorporates a total dispersion tensor. The second equation involves an additional transport coefficient, identified as the adsorption-induced vector. In this study, the aforementioned equations were solved in 1D for column tests using 3D unit cells. The simulated breakthrough curves (BTCs), using the proposed micro–macro-coupling-based VAM model, are compared with the direct numerical simulation (DNS) results based on BCC-type unit cells arranged one-after-another in a daisy chain manner, as well as with three previously reported experimental works, in which the functionalized zeolite and zero-valent iron fillings were used as an adsorbent to remove phosphorous and arsenic from water, respectively. The disagreement of VAM BTC predictions with DNS and experimental results reveals the need for an alternative closure formulation in VAM. Detailed investigations reveal time constraint violations in all the three cases, suggesting this as the main cause of VAM's failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mucus plugging of the respiratory tract occurs in airway diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fibrosis. It can cause blockage of the airways, leading to breathlessness and lung failure. Here, we used a ventilatory setup to demonstrate the effect of BromAc® in dissolving mucus plugs in a novel ex vivo ovine obstructive lung model. Mucus simulant was filled into the trachea of freshly slaughtered ovine lungs and ventilated via an endotracheal tube (ETT) using Continuous Mandatory Ventilation. Predetermined single or repeated doses of Bromelain, Acetylcysteine (Ac), BromAc®, and saline control were administered via an Aerogen® vibrating nebulizer and ventilated for 30 or 60 min. Ventilatory recording of resistance, compliance, and tidal volume was conducted, and rheology pre- and post-treatment were measured. A significant decline in airway resistance (p < 0.0001) compared to the saline control was observed when treated with Bromelain, Ac, and BromAc®, with the latter showing a stronger mucolytic effect than single agents. The decline in resistance was also effective in shorter time points (p < 0.05) at lower doses of the drugs. Changes in compliance, peak pressure, and tidal volume were not observed after administration of the drugs. Rheology measurements revealed that BromAc®TM significantly reduced the viscosity of the mucin at the end of 30 min and 60 min time points (p < 0.001) compared to the saline control. BromAc® showed complete dissolution of the respiratory mucus simulant and improved ventilatory airflow parameters in the ex vivo ovine model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proteolytic activity of enzymes may be evaluated by a colorimetric method with azocasein. Hence, we developed a micro-assay to quantify bromelain using azocasein. A total of 250 µL of 1.0% azocasein in dH2O was added to 250 µL of test solution, vortexed and incubated at ambient room temperature/30 min. The reaction was terminated with 1500 µL of 5% trichloroacetic acid, vortexed and centrifuged. A total of 150 µL of 0.5M NaOH was added to 150 µL of supernatant in triplicates, and absorbance was recorded at 410 nm. The linearity of the calibration curve was tested with 200–800 µg/mL serial dilutions. The detection limit, precision, accuracy, and robustness were tested along with the substrate enzyme reaction time and solvent matrix effect. Good linearity was seen with serially diluted 200 µg/mL bromelain. The limit of quantification and limit of detection were 5.412 and 16.4 µg/mL, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day analyses showed a relative standard deviation below 2.0%. The assay was robust when tested over 400–450 nm wavelengths. The assays performed using dH2O or PBS diluents indicated a higher sensitivity in dH2O. The proteolytic activity of bromelain was enhanced with L-cysteine or N-acetylcysteine. Hence, this micro-azocasein assay is reliable for quantifying bromelain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The drug BromAc® has been used in the treatment of pseudomyxoma peritonei, a rare peritoneal cancer. Often, patients with pseudomyxoma peritonei require colon resection with reconnection. Hence, we investigated whether BromAc® affects the healing of bowel wounds using a rat model. After colon-resection surgery, BromAc® was administered to a group of rats. Another group (control) of rats received saline. The colons were then left to heal for different time intervals. Next, the colons were assessed for healing using the burst-pressure test, whilst the effect of the BromAc® on the internal organs was investigated with histology. The results showed no significant differences in the healing of the colon wounds between the BromAc®-treated and the control rats. In addition, there was no difference in internal organ histology between the BromAc®-treated rats and the controls. Hence, the administration of intraperitoneal BromAc® is safe for the healing of colon resection. A combination of bromelain and acetylcysteine, BromAc®, is an efficient intraperitoneal mucolytic for thick mucus secreted in pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). Patients with PMP quite often undergo colon anastomosis. Hence, we investigated the effect of the intraperitoneal delivery of BromAc® on colon-anastomosis healing in a rat model. Sixteen Wistar rats were divided into two groups (N = 8). The controls received intraperitoneal saline after anastomosis, whilst the other group received BromAc®. They were monitored for body-weight and general health parameters. Half the rats in each group (N = 4) were culled at 4 or 13 days post-surgery for assessment. The healing process of the tissues was assessed by burst pressure and collagen density with histology to assess the integrity of the internal organs. The results indicated that there was a similar pattern of weight fluctuation during the experiment, although the rats treated with the BromAc® showed slightly greater weight loss during the first 4 days. Although the burst pressure was similar in both groups, the BromAc® group at day 13 showed a slightly higher burst pressure, which was complemented by a higher collagen density (albeit not statistically significant). The histology of the internal organs was comparable to those of the controls. This study indicates that the intraperitoneal delivery of BromAc® in a rat model does not interfere with the healing process of colonic anastomosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Contemporary models of care for people with mental disorders continue to shift to community-based care, requiring fewer inpatient mental health beds, shorter inpatient lengths of stay, and less use of coercion. It has been suggested that some mentally unwell people, whose behavior can no longer be safely contained in overstretched mental health units where seclusion and restraint are discouraged, are now left to the criminal justice system to manage. It is unclear whether the risk of imprisonment following discharge from a mental health unit has increased over recent years. Methods: A quantitative, retrospective cohort study design was used to investigate any association between an acute inpatient mental health service admission in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and referral to a prison mental health team within 28 days of hospital discharge, from 2012 to 2020. Data were extracted from the national mental health dataset managed by the Ministry of Health. Results: Risk of imprisonment within 28 days of inpatient discharge increased over the study period. People experiencing this outcome were more likely to be younger, male, of Mâori or Pacific ethnicity, presenting with substance use and psychotic disorders who were aggressive or overactive, and were subject to coercive interventions such as seclusion and compulsory treatment during their admission. Discussion: We concluded that contemporary models of less coercive predominantly community based mental health care may be increasingly reliant on the criminal justice system to manage aggressive and violent behavior driven by mental illness. It is argued from a human rights perspective that mental health inpatient units should retain the capacity to safely manage this type of clinical presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an automated approach to predict crack pattern similarities that correlate well with assessment by structural engineers. We use Siamese convolutional neural networks (SCNN) that take two crack pattern images as inputs and output scalar similarity measures. We focus on 2D masonry facades with and without openings. The image pairs are generated using a statistics-based approach and labelled by 28 structural engineering experts. When the data is randomly split into fit and test data, the SCNNs can achieve good performance on the test data ( R 2 ≈ 0.9). When the SCNNs are tested on "unseen" archetypes, their test R 2 values are on average 1% lower than the case where all archetypes are "seen" during the training. These very good results indicate that SCNNs can generalise to unseen cases without compromising their performance. Although the analyses are restricted to the considered synthetic images, the results are promising and the approach is general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]