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Proximal pulmonary artery masses are exceedingly rare, and their diagnosis and therapy are important and challenging for clinicians. This study reviews our experience exploring the value of a combination of transthoracic echocardiography and contrast echocardiography for the differential diagnosis of proximal pulmonary artery masses. Between January 2018 and June 2021, 44 patients diagnosed with a mass attached to the major pulmonary artery and straddling the bilateral pulmonary arteries or pulmonary valve on transthoracic echocardiography were referred to this study. Contrast echocardiography was performed in 17 patients. Masses were diagnosed based on their site of attachment, shape, size, mobility, hemodynamic consequences on transthoracic echocardiography, and tissue perfusion on contrast echocardiographic perfusion imaging. Pathological data were collected from medical records and analyzed. The most frequent location of proximal pulmonary artery masses was the major pulmonary artery trunk. Twelve patients underwent complete mass resection, whereas nine patients underwent percutaneous pulmonary artery biopsy puncture and had a pathological diagnosis. Another 24 patients were confirmed with the validation methods. Contrast echocardiography has good sensitivity and specificity for differentiating thrombi from pulmonary artery sarcomas (PAS). The mass types were distributed as follows: thrombi (19, 43%), PAS (15, 34%), metastatic tumors (6, 14%), vegetations (3, 7%), and primary benign lesions (1, 2%). The majority of proximal pulmonary artery masses were thrombi or PAS. A combination of transthoracic echocardiography and contrast echocardiography offers advantages in the early identification of proximal pulmonary masses and provides clinically important information about the characteristics of masses, especially for differentiating thrombi from PAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment of Ru3(CO)12 with salicylaldimines [2-HOC6H4-CH =N–C6H4-4-R] [R = Me; Cl; Br; OMe; CF3] in refluxing toluene gave three novel binuclear ruthenium carbonyl complexes {[µ-ƞ2-2-OC6H4-CH=N-C6H4-4-R)][µ-ƞ2-2-CH2-OC6H4][µ-ƞ-NH-C6H4-4-R]}Ru2(CO)4 [R = Me (1), Cl (2), Br (3)] and three mononuclear carbonyl complexes [2-OC6H4-CH=N-C6H4-4-R][2-OC6H4-CH2NH-C6H4-4-R]Ru(CO)2 [R = Me (4), OMe (5), CF3 (6)], respectively. The structures of 1–6 were fully characterized using IR and NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. These results suggest that the substituent group on the phenyl of salicylaldimine has a significant effect on the structure of the Ru complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of structural changes from an operational process is a major goal in machine condition monitoring. Existing methods for this purpose are mainly based on retrospective analysis, resulting in a large detection delay that limits their usages in real applications. This paper presents a new adaptive real-time change detection algorithm, an extension of the recent research by combining with an incremental sliding-window strategy, to handle the multi-change detection in long-term monitoring of machine operations. In particular, in the framework, Hilbert space embedding of distribution is used to map the original data into the Re-producing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS) for change detection; then, a new adaptive threshold strategy can be developed when making change decision, in which a global factor (used to control the coarse-to-fine level of detection) is introduced to replace the fixed value of threshold. Through experiments on a range of real testing data which was collected from an experimental rotating machinery system, the excellent detection performances of the algorithm for engineering applications were demonstrated. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed algorithm can be more suitable for long-term machinery condition monitoring without any manual re-calibration, thus is promising in modern industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the results of ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URSL) with retroperitoneal laparoscopic ureterolithotomy (RPLU) as two minimally invasive techniques in the management of proximal ureteral stones larger than 12 mm. Patients and methods: From January 2009 to October 2013, patients with impacted unilateral upper ureteral stones larger than 12 mm were enrolled including 182 males and 93 females with a medium age of 40 years (22-72 years). Patients were randomized to receive URSL (139 cases) with semirigid ureteroscope or RPLU (136 cases). Results: Stone size was similar in RPLU and URSL groups (13.8 ± 1.9 vs 13.6 ± 1.4 mm, P = 0.312). Operating time and hospitalizing days in URSL group were significantly shorter than those in RPLU group ( P < 0.001), whereas stone clearance rate was significantly higher in RPLU group (97.1 vs 89.9 %, P = 0.017). Ureteral strictures happened higher in URSL group (5 patients, 3.6 %) than RPLU group (2 patients, 1.5 %) with no statistical significance, while the strictures requiring surgical intervention were significantly higher in URSL group (4 cases) (2.9 vs 0 %, P = 0.046). Conclusion: RPLU could provide better stone clearance rate than semirigid URSL for upper ureteral impacted stones larger than 12 mm. It may also reduce the chance of surgical intervention for postoperative ureteral stricture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: To evaluate the impact of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) in hyaluronic acid (HA) therapy in rats model of severe non-bacterial cystitis. Methods: Cystitis models in Sprague-Dawley female rats were produced by combination of intraperitoneal cyclophosphamide (CYP) with intravesical protamine/lipopolysaccharide (PS/LPS). HA or heparin (0.5 ml) was introduced intravesically to rats' bladders followed PS/LPS. Bladder tissue was prepared for histology including mast cell presence and measurement of ICAM-1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin 6 (IL-6). Results: Cystitis model using intraperitoneal CYP and intravesical SP/LPS showed serious inflammation, higher mast cell count with elevated ICAM-1, TNF-α, and IL-6 levels. After intravesical heparin or HA treatment, incidence of grades 3-4 bladder inflammation and tissue ICAM-1 level were only significantly lower in HA group ( P = 0.017, P = 0.021, respectively), but not in heparin group ( P = 0.12, P = 0.798, respectively). Remarkably lower level of TNF-α ( P = 0.003) and ICAM-1 ( P = 0.006) was detected in HA-treated rats compared with heparin-treated rats. Inflammation grade and ICAM-1 level had strong correlation ( P < 0.001). IL-6 level after HA or heparin instillation had no difference. Conclusions: Intravesical administration of HA decreased the severity of bladder inflammation, mast cell presence, and levels of ICAM-1 and TNF-α in a rat model of severe non-bacterial cystitis; its effect was more obvious than that of heparin. Reduction of ICAM-1 may play a role in the anti-inflammatory effect of HA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the synthesis of some heterobimetallic carbonyl clusters of groups 8 and 9 derived from diethynylsilane and diethynyldisilane ligands. The triosmium carbonyl clusters containing a pendant acetylene unit [(μ-CO)Os(CO)(μ-η-HC≡C-E-C≡CH)] [E = Si(CH), Si(CH)-Si(CH) and SiPh] were prepared and subsequently used for mixed-metal cluster formation. New diyne complexes of the type [{(μ-CO)Os(CO)}{Co(CO)}(μ-η:η-diyne)] and [{(μ-CO)Os(CO)}{(μ-H)Ru(CO)}(μ-η:μ-η, η-diyne)] [diyne = HC≡CSi(CH)C≡CH, HC≡CSi(CH)-Si(CH)C≡CH or HC≡CSi(Ph)C≡CH] have been prepared in good yields from the reaction of [(μ-CO)Os(CO)(μ-η-HC≡C-E-C≡CH)] with a molar equivalent of [Co(CO)] and [Ru(CO)], respectively. All the new heterobimetallic compounds have been characterized by IR and H NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The X-ray crystal structures and computational analyses based on density functional theory of these three molecules have been studied. Structurally, the dicobalt species adopts a pseudo-tetrahedral CoC core with the alkyne bond which lies essentially perpendicular to the Co-Co vector. For the mixed osmium-ruthenium analogue, the hexanuclear carbonyl cluster consist of two trinuclear metal cores with the μ-(η-||) bonding mode for the acetylene group in the former case and the μ-η, η bonding mode in the latter one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]