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Recently, using eco-friendly controlling methods against pests has been getting great attention. Therefore, this study aimed to assess synthesis of two different phases of nano aluminum oxide, alpha and Gamma, (α- and γ-Al2O3 NPs) from wastes. Additionally, evaluate them to control stored product mites, Mycetoglyphus fungivorus, and Caloglyphus mycophagus, and the fungi Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria sp., and Fusarium oxysporum. Two phases of Al2O3 NPs were synthesized in acidic and basic media and characterized using the field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). Mortality percentages of mites were evaluated at concentrations of 10, 30 and 60 ppm after 1, 2, 3 and 4 days. The growth of fungi was assessed to determine the fungicidal concentrations in PDB cultures by Mycelium Dry Weights Method. The study confirmed the formation and thermal stability of α- and γ-Al2O3 NPs using FESEM, UVVis and TGA. The average particle size of α-Al2O3 is 4–10 nm and for γ- Al2O3 is 14–30 nm. Both phases were toxic to tested stages of mites. Increasing concentration and exposure time, results in increased mite mortality rates. γ-Al2O3 NPs were more efficient than α-NPs post initial exposure, then all through time both have the same effect. The female's fecundity was significantly influenced. Tested eggs did not hatch at all. The toxic activity remained strong after 1, 2, and 3 months of exposure. The SEM images revealed a strong adhesive of α- and γ-NPs which were visibly bonded to various areas of dead mite females. γ-Al2O3 showed antifungal activity more than the α-NPs. Concentrations of fungicides depended on the fungal strain sensitivity. It has been concluded that α- and γ-Al2O3 NPs are efficient environmentally friendly agents against the proliferation of storage mites and mycotoxin producing fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study seeks to investigate the impact of co-administering either a Prostaglandin EP2 receptor agonist or an EP1 receptor antagonist alone with a low dose BMP7 on in vitro healing process, collagen content and maturation of human osteoblasts. Methodology: Human osteoblast cells were used in this study. These cells were cultured and subjected to different concentrations of Prostaglandin EP2 receptor agonist, EP1 receptor antagonist, BMP7, Control (Ct) (Vehicle alone), and various combinations treatments. Cell viability at 24, 48 and 72 hours (h) was evaluated using the XTT assay. A wound healing assay was conducted to observe the migration ability of human osteoblast cells. Additionally, Sirius red staining and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy Imaging (FT-IR) was employed to analyze various parameters, including total protein concentration, collagen production, mature collagen concentration, and mineral content. Results: The combination of low dose BMP7 and Prostaglandin EP2 receptor agonist resulted to the lowest cell viability when compared to both the Ct and individual treatments. In contrast, the Prostaglandin EP1 receptor antagonist alone showed the highest cellular viability at 72 h. In the wound healing assay, the combined treatment of low dose BMP7 with the Prostaglandin EP2 receptor agonist and EP1 receptor antagonist showed a decrease in human osteoblast healing after 24 h. Analysis of FT-IR data indicated a reduction in total protein content, collagen maturity, collagen concentration and mineral content in combination treatment compared to the single or Ct treatments. Conclusion: The combination of a Prostaglandin EP2 receptor agonist or an EP1 receptor antagonist when combined with low dose BMP7 significantly hinders both human osteoblast healing and collagen maturity/concentration in comparison to low dose BMP7 treatment alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Thy‐1 (CD90) is a glycosylphosphatidyl‐anchored protein belonging to the immunoglobulin family and is known to control mesenchymal stromal cells differentiation into osteoblasts or adipocytes. The study aimed to investigate the salivary levels of Thy‐1 in health, periodontitis, obesity, and any potential association. Materials and Methods: Seventy‐one participants were divided into four groups: healthy (H), subjects with periodontitis (P), obese individuals (O), and obese individuals having periodontitis (PO). Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from participants who were evaluated for periodontal parameters. The levels of Thy‐1 were measured with a commercially available ELISA kit. The data were statistically analyzed. Results: A significant difference in salivary Thy‐1 levels among different groups was observed. Periodontitis patients had the maximum, and obese individuals had the minimum Thy‐1 levels. Significant differences between H and P, H and PO, P and O, and O and PO were observed. Overall correlations between Thy‐1 and periodontal parameters and a positive correlation with pocket depth in group PO were noted. Conclusion: Thy‐1 could be detected in the saliva of all study participants. It is implied that a local inflammatory condition like periodontitis elevates the salivary levels of Thy‐1 with, and without obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this work was assessment of sepsis induced cardiac dysfunction (SIMD) in neonates with sepsis by 2-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography, tissue Doppler as well as other conventional echocardiographic methods and its correlation with serum procalcitonin (PCT) and, cardiac troponin -T (cTnT). Methods: This study was prospective controlled cohort study that included 60 neonates with diagnosis of neonatal sepsis compared to 60 healthy newborns who were matching in age and sex. both groups was subjected to basic and advanced transthoracic echocardiography and some lab markers in order to assess sepsis induced cardiac dysfunction, and correlates the findings with serum procalcitonin, cardiac troponin -T. Results: Out of the enrolled 60 patients and 60 controls. Mean age of cases was 16.62±4.74 days and 14.85±5.88 days for controls. blood culture was positive in 48.3%; 65.5% was gram positive and 34.4% was gram negative, Median Procalcitonin among cases was 5.20 ng/ml compared to 0.22 among controls, median cTnT among cases was 0.27 compared to 0.03 among controls, LVGLS was -10.79±1.47 among cases vs -14.68±1.13 among controls, P value <0.001. mean EF was 46.03±6.93 among cases versus 62.58±5.69 among controls, P value <0.001, There was significant positive correlation between left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV GLS) and PCT and cTnT levels. Conclusion. PCT is good markers of neonatal sepsis. cTnT is a good laboratory indicator for cardiac affection in neonatal sepsis. speckle tracking echocardiography is a promising tool in assessment of cardiac function PCT and cTnT were correlated with both LV and RV systolic dysfunction detected by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and STE, SIMD is very common comorbidity in neonatal sepsis, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prompt and accurate detection of brain tumours is essential for disease management and life‐saving. This paper introduces an efficient and robust completely automated system for classifying the three prominent types of brain tumour. The aim is to contribute for enhanced classification accuracy with minimum pre‐processing and less inference time. The power of deep networks is thoroughly investigated, with and without transfer learning. Fine‐tuned deep Residual Networks (ResNets) with depth up to 101 are introduced to manage the complex nature of brain images, and to capture their microstructural information. The proposed residual architectures with their in‐depth representations are evaluated and compared to other fine‐tuned networks (AlexNet, GoogLeNet and VGG16). A novel Convolutional Network (ConvNet) built and trained from scratch is also proposed for tumour type classification. Proven models are integrated by combining their decisions using majority voting to obtain the final classification accuracy. Results show that the residual architectures can be optimized efficiently, and a noticeable accuracy can be gained with them. Although ResNet models are deeper than VGG16, they show lower complexity. Results also indicate that building ensemble of models is a successful strategy to enhance the system performance. Each model in the ensemble learns specific patterns with certain filters. This stochastic nature boosts the classification accuracy. The accuracies obtained from ResNet18, ResNet101, and the proposed ConvNet are 98.91%, 97.39% and 95.43%, respectively. The accuracy based on decision fusion for the three networks is 99.57%, which is better than those of all state‐of‐the‐art techniques. The accuracy obtained with ResNet50 is 98.26%, and its fusion with ResNet18 and the designed network yields a 99.35% accuracy, which is also better than those of previous methods, meanwhile achieving minimum detection time requirements. Finally, visual representation of the learned features is provided to understand what the models have learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Guidelines surrounding the management of T4b muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) with radical cystectomy (RC) are limited and lack clarity. Our objective was to analyze our single-center experience to provide additional insight into the role of RC. Methods: We performed a retrospective data analysis using clinical, radiological, and pathological information for all patients managed by RC for cT4b MIBC at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (July 2015 to July 2020). Patients that had MIBC as their first diagnosis were termed the de novo group and patients that were initially diagnosed as having non-MIBC were termed the progressive group. Results: Nineteen consecutive patients (16 males and three females), with a median age of 68 years, managed by two urologists over the last five years, met study criteria. Eleven (58%) of the patients had de novo MIBC while eight (42%) presented with progressive disease. All patients had dysuria as a presenting symptom. Only one (5%) patient received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. There were low rates of perioperative transfusion (11%), bowel resections (5%), postoperative transfusions (0%), ileus (32%), urine leak (16%), and wound dehiscence (5%). Fourteen patients (74%) had positive lymph nodes. All patients had adjuvant chemotherapy. The one-year recurrence rate in these patients was 53%, with 32% of recurrence being distant metastasis. The one-year survival rate was 95%. Conclusions: Patients in the de novo and progressive arms of our cohort had similar rates of surgical complications and disease recurrence. We found operative morbidity and disease control to be reasonable, suggesting RC can be considered more often in the management of T4b MIBC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]