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Chodrosarcoma is the third most common primary malignancy of the bone, it is considered the most frequent malignancy of the chest wall. Chondrosarcoma at the costovertebral junction is rare and few cases are described in the literature., Case Presentation: The authors present a case of a 47-year-old female with a complaint of chronic pain in the right posterior upper chest, dyspnea, and episodes of dizziness.The diagnosis of low-grade chondrosarcoma at the posterior costovertebral junction was made by video-assisted thoracic surgery and computed tomography.The surgical management included resection of the tumor and parts of adjacent ribs., Discussion: Chondrosarcoma is chemotherapy and radiotherapy-resistant. The total surgical excision of the tumor with sufficient margins is usually curative., Conclusion: A follow-up is necessary because of the potential for recurrence., Competing Interests: The authors declares that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background Cholesteatoma is described as the accumulation of squamous epithelium and keratinocytes within and around the middle ear cleft. There is a paucity of information regarding demographic and treatment outcomes for cholesteatoma in Saudi Arabia. An evaluation of the prevalence of comorbidities, complications and associations, of surgical treatment and demographics in the Qassim region was conducted. Methods This was a six-year retrospective review of patients treated for cholesteatoma at a private health facility, from August 2016 to July 2022. Data for age, gender, nationality, presence of comorbidities, type of surgery, type of anesthesia, and associated complications were collected from the electronic medical records and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. Results A total of 60 participants records were retrieved. The average age of the study population was ([43.2 ±SD] 21.8) years. There was a slightly higher male preponderance (males 51.7% and females 48.3%). Hypertension was the most commonly reported comorbidity (31.7%), followed by diabetes mellitus (25%). Age and gender were not statistically significantly associated with type of surgery or complications. Conclusion Demographic variables were not significantly associated with clinical correlates, however, further studies with larger sample sizes, robust clinical information, and long-term follow-up are required., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Alhazmi et al.)

Exposure to hydrocarbon products has been associated with numerous health risks and toxicities. Outdoor or indoor occupational exposure to highly volatile and lipid-soluble hydrocarbons has been linked to impairment of respiratory, cardiovascular, and liver functions. This study is aimed at determining the potential impact of occupational exposure to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in varying work environments. Respiratory symptoms, oxidative stress, cardio-pulmonary, and liver function parameters were assessed among LPG workers in the Kano metropolis, Nigeria. Study subjects were recruited from LPG filling stations and street LPG retail shops. Results of the study showed that the forced vital capacity (FVC) of LPG station workers was significantly lower (2.81 L/min; H = 22.473, p < 0.001) relative to the values recorded among LPG retail shop workers and the controls (3.54 L/min and 4.24 L/min respectively). A similar reduction was seen in the forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV 1 ) and the forced expiratory flow in 25-75 % of forced vital capacity (FEF 25 - 75 ) obtained from the filling station workers (H = 32.722, p < 0.001 & H = 15.655, p <0.001 respectively). Furthermore, exposure to non-combusted LPG increased systolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, and serum liver enzymes. Findings from this study revealed that despite the high amount of coarse particulate matter in LPG retail shops, the filling station workers are more susceptible to the impairment of lung function possibly due to the high quantity of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in the filling station environment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Since December 2019, the whole world has been facing the big challenge of Covid-19 or 2019-nCoV. Some nations have controlled or are controlling the spread of this virus strongly, but some countries are in big trouble because of their poor control strategies. Nowadays, mathematical models are very effective tools to simulate outbreaks of this virus. In this research, we analyze a fractional-order model of Covid-19 in terms of the Caputo fractional derivative. First, we generalize an integer-order model to a fractional sense, and then, we check the stability of equilibrium points. To check the dynamics of Covid-19, we plot several graphs on the time scale of daily and monthly cases. The main goal of this content is to show the effectiveness of fractional-order models as compared to integer-order dynamics., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Also, this study is not funded nor supported by any grant., (© 2022 The Authors. Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The three-term conjugate gradient (CG) algorithms are among the efficient variants of CG algorithms for solving optimization models. This is due to their simplicity and low memory requirements. On the other hand, the regression model is one of the statistical relationship models whose solution is obtained using one of the least square methods including the CG-like method. In this paper, we present a modification of a three-term conjugate gradient method for unconstrained optimization models and further establish the global convergence under inexact line search. The proposed method was extended to formulate a regression model for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The study considers the globally infected cases from January to October 2020 in parameterizing the model. Preliminary results have shown that the proposed method is promising and produces efficient regression model for COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the method was extended to solve a motion control problem involving a two-joint planar robot., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) is a major cause of chemical-induced occupational asthma, which contributes about 15% of global asthma burden. Resistance and compounded side effects associated with the use of corticosteroid in asthma necessitate the search for alternative drugs. Andrographolide (AGP), a naturally occurring diterpene lactone is known to exhibit various bioactivities. Its ability to ameliorate cardinal features of allergic asthma was previously suggested in an eosinophilic asthma endotype. However, its potential antiasthma activity and mechanism of action in a neutrophilic occupational asthma model, as well as its effect on epithelial dysfunction remain unknown. BALB/c mice were dermally sensitised with 0.3% TDI or acetone olive oil (AOO) vehicle on day 1 and 8, followed by 0.1% TDI intranasal challenge on days 15, 18 and 21. Endpoints were evaluated via bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cell analysis, 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA) assays, immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry and methacholine challenge test. Decreases in total and differential leukocyte counts of BALF were recorded in AGP-treated animals. The compound dose-dependently reduced intracellular de-esterification of DCFDA, thus suggesting AGP's potential to inhibit intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Mechanistically, the treatment prevented TDI-induced aberrant E-cadherin distribution and restored airway epithelial β-catenin at cell to cell contact site. Furthermore, AGP ameliorated TDI induced pulmonary collagen deposition. In addition, the treatment significantly upregulated pulmonary HO-1, Nrf2 and phospho-p38 levels. Airway hyperresponsiveness was markedly suppressed among AGP-treated animals. Collectively, these findings suggest AGP's protective function against TDI-induced airway epithelial barrier dysfunction and oxidative lung damage possibly through the upregulation of adherence junction proteins and the activation of p38/Nrf2 signalling. This study elucidates the therapeutic potential of AGP in the control and management of chemical-induced allergic asthma. To the best of our knowledge, the potential anti-asthma activity of AGP in TDI-induced occupational asthma has not been reported previously., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Extensive research into the therapeutics of asthma has yielded numerous effective interventions over the past few decades. However, adverse effects and ineffectiveness of most of these medications especially in the management of steroid resistant severe asthma necessitate the development of better medications. Numerous drug targets with inherent airway smooth muscle tone modulatory role have been identified for asthma therapy. This article reviews the latest understanding of underlying molecular aetiology of asthma towards design and development of better antiasthma drugs. New drug candidates with their putative targets that have shown promising results in the preclinical and/or clinical trials are summarised. Examples of these interventions include restoration of Th1/Th2 balance by the use of newly developed immunomodulators such as toll-like receptor-9 activators (CYT003-QbG10 and QAX-935). Clinical trials revealed the safety and effectiveness of chemoattractant receptor-homologous molecule expressed on Th2 cells (CRTH2) antagonists such as OC0000459, BI-671800 and ARRY-502 in the restoration of Th1/Th2 balance. Regulation of cytokine activity by the use of newly developed biologics such as benralizumab, reslizumab, mepolizumab, lebrikizumab, tralokinumab, dupilumab and brodalumab are at the stage of clinical development. Transcription factors are potential targets for asthma therapy, for example SB010, a GATA-3 DNAzyme is at its early stage of clinical trial. Other candidates such as inhibitors of Rho kinases (Fasudil and Y-27632), phosphodiesterase inhibitors (GSK256066, CHF 6001, roflumilast, RPL 554) and proteinase of activated receptor-2 (ENMD-1068) are also discussed. Preclinical results of blockade of calcium sensing receptor by the use of calcilytics such as calcitriol abrogates cardinal signs of asthma. Nevertheless, successful translation of promising preclinical data into clinically viable interventions remains a major challenge to the development of novel anti-asthmatics., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Syringocystadenomapapilliferum is an extremely rare benign adnexal tumor of the scalp and face region. This is a report of the case of a female patient with syringocystadenomapapilliferum originating from the bony cartilaginous junction of the external auditory canal. A provisional diagnosis of an inflammatory polyp was made based on the clinical and radiological findings. Diagnosis was established only after the histopathological examination. This article represents a report of a rare skin disease and a rare site of affection. It emphasizes the role of histopathology in the diagnosis of such a condition with debatable clinical and radiological findings.

Objectives: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) examination in breast carcinoma is crucial to spare patients unnecessary lymph node (LN) dissection. The specificity and accuracy of SLN examination by frozen section has been variable in many studies. This study aims to describe our experience in frozen section (FS) analysis of SLN., Methods: We have retrospectively analyzed data from 449 axillary SLN subjected to FS examination from 440 patients with breast cancer. All patients had free axillary LN clinically., Results: Out of 449 cases, no false positive cases were found on FS (specificity of 100 %). Twenty-six cases were false negative (6 interpretation-related reasons and 20 technical-related reasons). The overall sensitivity was 84 % with a total accuracy rate of 93 % and interpretation sensitivity of 96 %. Three cases were deferred. Twenty-two of the false negative cases were micrometastases, whereas 4 were macrometastases. The interpretation-related false negative cases were not related to the subtype of carcinoma (ductal vs. lobular). However, they were all of low nuclear grade., Conclusion: These findings are similar to most published data. FS is a reliable method for evaluating SLN. The most common cause of false negative diagnosis is sampling error. More attention should be paid to low-grade tumors. Moreover, in FS analysis, we recommend to totally submit SLNs that are less than 5 mm in diameter, bisecting them if possible, and to serially section SLNs that are at least 5 mm at 2-mm intervals.