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From identification of SARS-CoV-2 in December 2019 through September 22, 2022, [approximately equal to] 612 million confirmed cases and 6.5 million confirmed deaths were reported worldwide (1). During the COVID-19 [...]

Background: Patellofemoral osteoarthritis (PF OA) is exceptionally predominant and limiting. However, little is known about the risk factors that contribute to its onset and progression.Purpose: The aim of this study was to decide if women with PF OA descend stairs using different muscular activation strategies compared to similarly aged healthy controls.Methods: Thirty-one women with isolated PF OA and 11 similarly aged healthy women took part in this study. The activation onset and duration of PF OA in vastus medialis oblique (VMO), vastus lateralis (VL), gluteus medius (GM), transversus abdominis (TrA), and multifidus muscles were evaluated during the stair descent task using surface electromyography (EMG).Results: There was a non-significant difference between women with PF OA and healthy controls regarding all tested variables, except for the GM activation onset that was significantly delayed in women with PF OA, with the p-value of 0.011.Conclusion: The causes of PF OA differ and might not always be due to a lack of quadriceps strength or VMO activation deficiency, and prospective longitudinal studies are required to confirm this assumption.

IntroductionChronic venous and diabetic ulcers are hard to treat that cause patients long time of suffering as well as significant healthcare and financial costs.PurposeThe conducted study was to evaluate the efficacy of bee venom (BV) phonophoresis on the healing of chronic unhealed venous and/or diabetic foot ulcers Also, to compare the healing rate of diabetic and venous ulcers.MethodologyThe study included 100 patients (71 males and 29 females) with an age range of 40-60 years' old who had chronic unhealed venous leg ulcers of grade I, grade II, or diabetic foot ulcers with type II diabetes mellitus. They randomly assigned into four equal groups of 25: Group A (diabetic foot ulcer study group) and group C (venous ulcer study group) who both received conservative treatment of medical ulcer care and phonophoresis with BV gel, in addition to group B (diabetic foot ulcer control group) and group D (venous ulcer control group) who both received conservative treatment of medical ulcer care and received ultrasound sessions only without BV gel. Wound surface area (WSA) and ulcer volume measurement (UVM) were used to assess the ulcer healing pre-application (P0), post-6 weeks of treatment (P1), and after 12 weeks of treatment (P2). In addition to Ki-67 immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate the cell proliferative in the granulation tissue of ulcers pre-application (P0) and after 12 weeks of treatment (P2) for all groups.ResultsThis research revealed a statistical significance improvement (p ≤ 0.0) in the WSA, and UVM with no significant difference between study groups after treatment. Regarding Ki-67 immunohistochemistry showed higher post treatment values in the venous ulcer group in comparison to the diabetic foot ulcer group.ConclusionBee venom (BV) provided by phonophoresis is effective adjuvant treatment in accelerating venous and diabetic foot ulcer healing with higher proliferative effect on venous ulcer.Clinical trial registrationwww.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT05285930.

ObjectiveTo assess the effectiveness of 448 kHz monopolar capacitive resistive radiofrequency (MCRR) in the treatment of females with stress urinary incontinence (SUI).Materials and methodsForty females with SUI complaints were separated randomly into two equal groups. Group A with 20 females received the MCRR therapy for 20 min and performed pelvic floor exercises for 20 min. Group B with 20 females received placebo treatment by applying the same application as in Group A without emitting any waves for 20 min, three times a week, for 4 weeks. The patients in both groups were instructed to pause the treatment during their menstruation; the patients were instructed to maintain home pelvic floor exercises. Both groups were assessed by a perineometer that was used to assess the strength of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM), the visual analogue scale (VAS), and the Incontinence Symptom Severity Index to assess the frequency of urinary incontinence symptoms as described by each patient before treatment and after 4 weeks of treatment.ResultsThere was a significant reduction (p

Based on the decomposition of the deflection into bending, panel shear, nail slip, and base rotation terms, the nonlinear four-term equation specified by the Canadian wood design code provides an estimate of the total lateral deflection of light-frame wood shear walls. This paper reports the creation of a numerical procedure for separating the responses for each term using a detailed nonlinear finite element modeling (FEM) that simulates individual components of shear walls. Since sheathing panel stiffness is not considered in computations of the bending term, the study reveals that bending deformation results calculated using the equation are more conservative than the FEM results. The nail slip term does not reflect the real nail base connection properties. A new equilibrium equation for determining the lateral deflection due to base rotation is presented. The equation is generally conservative because of the omission of some practical considerations. Key words: four-term, lateral deflection equation, finite element modeling (FEM), light frame, wood shear walls, nonlinear sheathing-to-frame nails. En se basant sur la decomposition de la deformation en termes de flexion, de cisaillement de panneaux, de glissement de clous et de rotation de base, l'equation non lineaire a quatre termes comme specifiee par les Regles de calcul des charpentes en bois du CSA fournit une estimation de la deformation laterale totale des murs de contreventement en bois a charpente legere. Le present document fait etat de la creation d'une procedure numerique pour separer les reponses pour chaque terme a l'aide d'une modelisation des elements finis (FEM) detaillee non lineaires qui simule les composants individuels des murs de contreventement. Etant donne que la rigidite du panneau de revetement n'est pas prise en compte dans les calculs du terme de flexion, l'etude revele que les resultats de deformation de flexion calcules a l'aide de l'equation sont plus conservateurs que les resultats de FEM. Le terme de glissement de clou ne reflete pas les proprietes reelles de la connexion de la base du clou. L'equation est generalement conservatrice en raison de l'omission de certaines considerations pratiques. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: quatre termes, equation de deflexion laterale, modele d'elements finis (FEM), cadre leger, murs de contreventement en bois, clous de revetement a charpente non lineaire., Introduction Light-frame wood buildings (LFWBs) consist mainly of shear walls, floor diaphragms, the roof, and metal connections. For more than 70 years, the literature has been replete with studies related [...]

The school type can greatly affect the posture and psychological state of adolescent girls by controlling many factors, such as school bag load and way of carriage, furniture-anthropometry degree of matching, and availability of resources. This study aimed to compare postural changes and psychological aspects of adolescent Egyptian girls, attending two different school types: public versus private schools. An observational study was conducted on 200 adolescent girls, whose ages ranged from 14 to 17 years, with a body mass index of 19–25 kg/m2, selected from two different school types (two public and another two private) at El-Sharkia government, Egypt. They were assigned into two equal groups: group (A), including 100 public schoolgirls, and group (B) involving 100 international schoolgirls. Postural and mechanical changes were assessed at the head, rib cage, shoulders, hips, and knees in both groups by the Posture Screen® Mobile app and a photographic method from lateral and frontal views while standing. Assessing anxiety, depression, and stress signals was done using depression anxiety stress scales-21. The girls of public and international schools had different schoolbag characteristics but assumed the same poor posture. The results indicated more significant changes in the public schoolgirls of group (A) (p ˂ 0.05) in the head shift, shoulder tilting, hip shift, hip tilting, total shift, and total tilting, compared to the international girls of the group (B), while there were more changes in head weight, and effective head weight, indicating more forward head in the international girls of the group (B). For psychological aspects, the public-school girls had statistically significantly higher stress and anxiety scores (p ˂ 0.05) than the international schoolgirls. Thus, it could be concluded that the school type may affect the posture and psychology of Egyptian adolescent girls, as the girls at the public schools had more coronal postural changes together with more stress and anxiety than the girls enrolled in the private schools, while girls of the private schools had more forward head posture.

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Introduction Ankle instability is a common injury in athletes, affecting the quality of life, functional limitation, as well as static and dynamic balance. The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy of virtual reality and Biodex balance training in the treatment of ankle instability in adolescent athletes. Material and methods Ninety football players were enrolled in this study after the assessment of their eligibility. Their age ranged from 12 to 16 years. They were randomly allocated to three groups of equal numbers. Group 1 received a guideline protocol, group 2 received the same guideline protocol in addition to Wii Sport Training, and group 3 received the same guideline protocol in addition to Biodex balance training. All groups received treatment protocols three times a week for 3 months. Outcome measures included the stability indices (overall stability, anteroposterior stability, and mediolateral) measured by the Biodex Balance System as well as ankle instability measured by the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool. Measurements were collected at the baseline and after 3 months of treatment. Results Post-treatment findings revealed a statistically significant decrease in the overall, anteroposterior, and mediolateral stability indices, as well as significant increase in Cumberland Ankle Instability outcomes of all groups (p < 0.05). On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences between the virtual reality and Biodex balance training groups. Conclusions Virtual reality training has a significant effect which appears to be similar to the Biodex balance training in adolescent athletes with chronic ankle instability.

Deregulation of noncoding RNAs, including microRNAs (miRs), is implicated in the pathogenesis of many human cancers, including breast cancer. Through extensive analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas, we found that expression of miR-22-3p is markedly lower in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) than in normal breast tissue. The restoration of miR-22-3p expression led to significant inhibition of TNBC cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion. We demonstrated that miR-22-3p reduces eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF2K) expression by directly binding to the 3′ untranslated region of eEF2K mRNA. Inhibition of EF2K expression recapitulated the effects of miR-22-3p on TNBC cell proliferation, motility, invasion, and suppression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt and Src signaling. Systemic administration of miR-22-3p in single-lipid nanoparticles significantly suppressed tumor growth in orthotopic MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-436 TNBC models. Evaluation of the tumor response, following miR-22-3p therapy in these models using a novel mathematical model factoring in various in vivo parameters, demonstrated that the therapy is highly effective against TNBC. These findings suggest that miR-22-3p functions as a tumor suppressor by targeting clinically significant oncogenic pathways and that miR-22-3p loss contributes to TNBC growth and progression. The restoration of miR-22-3p expression is a potential novel noncoding RNA-based therapy for TNBC.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effects of protein reduction with supplementation of limiting amino acids (AA, tryptophan, threonine, and valine) on growth performance, blood biochemical, immunity parameters, and carcass traits in broiler chickens. Materials and Methods: Three hundred one-day-old broiler chicks were randomly allotted into three treatment groups, with five replicates per treatment and 20 broiler chickens per replicate. The three experimental diets were formulated with different dietary crude protein (CP) %, (control [CON] and CON with 1% [CP-1%] or 2% [CP-2%] less CP units) during the starter, grower, and finisher phases. The CP of the experimental diets were 22, 21, and 20% for the starting period (day 1-14); 20, 19, and 18% CP for the growing period (day 15-28); and 18, 17, and 16% CP for the finishing period (day 29-35) in CON, CP-1%, and CP-2%, respectively. The low-CP diets (CP-1% and CP-2%) were supplemented with combined AA, threonine+tryptophan+valine, to meet the respective levels of the CON diet. Results: The CP-2% group had greater (p

Examining the outcome of the extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on females with postpartum sacroiliac joint pain was the aim of this study. Forty primigravida (six weeks postpartum) females with sacroiliac pain was the sample in this study. The subjects equally randomly allocated in group A and B. Group A was treated by ESWT in addition to postural correction and posterior pelvic tilting exercises. Group B was treated by the same exercise program only. Two sessions every week for four weeks were received by both groups. The measurement variables were sacroiliac pain and function level that were measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) and the back pain functional scale (BPFS), respectively. All measurements were evaluated pre and post four weeks of intervention. The within groups analysis showed a significant improvement in VAS and a significant increase in BPFS in both groups after treatment compared with baseline. Regarding between groups analyses there was a significant improvement in VAS and a significant increase in BPFS in group A compared with group B. In conclusion, both ESWT and exercise program are effective in decreasing the pain and improving the function in females with postpartum sacroiliac pain. However, by adding ESWT to exercises in the treatment program the results are better, so this combination is recommended in treatment of females with postpartum sacroiliac pain.

The aim was to investigate and compare the effectiveness of Ultrasound (US) versus a combination of US and ischemic compression (IC) technique on headache pain intensity and range of motion (ROM) of the cervical region in healthy females with myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) in the cervical muscles, following normal delivery. Forty females (ages 20-35 years) with MTrPs in the muscles of the neck took part in the study. They were assigned into control group (US therapy for the MTrPs of the upper trapezius and sub-occipital muscles) and study group (IC technique on the active MTrPs of the muscles in addition to the US application). They received eight sessions for 4 weeks (2 sessions/week). All patients were evaluated before and after treatment for the intensity of radiating headache by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the universal goniometer to measure cervical ROM. Two-way mixed design MANOVA demonstrated a significant decrease (p

This study aimed to identify the near-infrared (NIR) light emitting diode (LED) time response on isokinetic peak torque of elbow flexors. This was a prospective, randomized, single blind, pre–test post-test, and placebo-controlled crossover study. Forty-five healthy non-athletes were assigned at random to 3 groups equally: 5 minutes, 1-hour and 5-hours groups. Each group (n=15) had at the first session 890 nm wavelength NIR-LED, either in active or placebo conditions, prior to exercise that provokes fatigue (5 minutes, 1 hour, or 5 hours). After an interval of 7 days, the second NIR-LED condition was applied at the second session. The assessment of isokinetic peak torque was done at base line and post exercise in each session using isokinetic dynamometer. There was no significant difference between groups and between conditions in isokinetic peak torque (p > 0.05). Isokinetic peak torque decreased significantly post treatment compared with pretreatment (p < 0.01) in all groups, but the 5 minutes group showed the least percent of decrease. In conclusion, NIR-LED can most probably resist muscle fatigue with the parameters used in this study if it is employed 5 minutes before exercise.

Introduction: Radical cystectomy with orthotopic urinary diversion is considered the gold standard for treatment of muscular invasive bladder cancer or high-risk nonmuscular invasive bladder cancer. The choice of orthotopic neobladder reconstruction depends on the clinical outcomes of it and should be planned with the patients, especially the risk of incontinence. Methods: this study included 52 Egyptian patients underwent radical cystectomy and orthotopic neobladder reconstruction with sigmoid (25 patients) and ileal (27 patients) segments. Postoperative clinical outcomes between the sigmoid and ileal neobladder groups were compared. Results: In the present study, 12 intraoperative complications (6 in each group) and 19 postoperative complications (17 in sigmoid and 15 in ileal group) occurred; however, there was no significant difference in the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative complications between both groups. There were no significant differences in the continence status and spontaneous voiding between both groups. There were no significant differences in maximal flow rate and voided volume between both groups. Night voiding frequency in the ileal neobladder patients was significantly smaller than sigmoid neobladder patients. Free flowery showed a significant difference of voiding time and volume in favor of sigmoid neobladder group. Maximum urethral pressure and urethral closing pressure were significantly higher in ileal neobladder group. Conclusions: Both types of neobladder reconstruction resulted in comparatively satisfactory outcomes; however, the voiding function in sigmoid neobladder group appeared to be more favorable than that in ileal neobladder group.