Karen L. Stern, Manoj Monga

Canadian Journal of Urology, Vol.25, No.3, pp. 9313-9316, 2018

Abstract Introduction: The Moses technology of the holmium laser has been shown to decrease retropulsion in the ureter and procedural time in kidney stones during laser lithotripsy. Theoretically, these improvements could lead to cost savings for the patient.
Materials and methods: All patients with total laser energy data recorded who underwent ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy by a single surgeon at a tertiary care center were included. Total lasing time was calculated from the total laser energy. Sub-analyses were done on stone size and stone composition. The procedure time using Moses technology was projected to be approximately 35% less… More >

Jianjun Shen^*1, Weina Niu^†1, Hongbo Zhang^*, Ma Jun^*, Hongyan Zhang^*

Oncology Research, Vol.26, No.6, pp. 901-911, 2018, DOI:10.3727/096504017X15061902533715

Abstract Gastric cancer is the fourth most common malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the expression patterns, biological roles, and underlying mechanisms of microRNA-147 (miR-147) in gastric cancer. The present study demonstrated that miR-147 was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. Downregulation of miR-147 decreased cell proliferation and enhanced the chemosensitivity of gastric cancer cells to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) through the cell apoptosis pathway. In addition, phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) was mechanically identified as the direct target of miR-147 in gastric cancer. PTEN knockdown More >

Ye Li^*†‡, Haihong Luo^§, Nan Xiao^*, Jianmin Duan^*, Zhiping Wang^*, Shuanke Wang^¶

Oncology Research, Vol.26, No.1, pp. 131-143, 2018, DOI:10.3727/096504017X14944585873631

Abstract Prostate cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in males. The long noncoding RNA second chromosome locus associated with prostate-1 (SChLAP1) has been found to be overexpressed in a subset of prostate cancer. However, the significance and mechanism of SChLAP1 in prostate cancer are not well known. In this study, we explored the role of SChLAP1 in prostate cancer tissues, cell lines, and mouse models. The effect of SChLAP1 on miR-198 and MAPK1 was specifically examined. We found that SChLAP1 expression was significantly increased in prostate cancer… More >

M. Carmel Sobia¹, A. Abudhahir²

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.24, No.4, pp. 869-881, 2018, DOI:10.31209/2018.100000014

Abstract In this paper, an efficient facial expression recognition system using ANFIS-MHS (Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System with Mosquito Host-Seeking) has been proposed. The features were extracted using MLDA (Modified Linear Discriminant Analysis) and then the optimized parameters are computed by using mGSO (modified Glow-worm Swarm Optimization).The proposed system recognizes the facial expressions using ANFIS-MHS. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique is performed better than existing classification schemes like HAKELM (Hybridization of Adaptive Kernel based Extreme Learning Machine), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The proposed approach is implemented in MATLAB. More >

Joseph J. Knadler¹, Daniel J. Penny¹, Tyler H. Harris², Gary D. Webb³, Antonio G. Cabrera^1,4, William B. Kyle¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.5, pp. 794-798, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12669

Abstract Objective: The growing body of medical literature in pediatric cardiology has made it increasingly difficult for individual providers to stay abreast of the most current, meaningful articles to help guide practice. Crowdsourcing represents a collaborative process of obtaining information from a large group of individuals, typically from an online or web‐based community, and could serve a potential mechanism to pool indi‐ vidual efforts to combat this issue. This study aimed to utilize crowdsourcing as a novel way to generate a list of the most relevant, current publications in congenital heart disease, utilizing input from an international… More >

Alka Anilkumar¹, D. M. Vasudevan², Mahesh Kappanayil³, K. R. Sundaram⁴, R. Krishna Kumar³, Sheela Nampoothiri⁵

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.3, pp. 483-487, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12600

Abstract Background and Objectives: The 22q11 deletion syndrome is associated with a wide spectrum of phenotypic features, hence clinical diagnosis is difficult. Individuals with this syndrome are found to have a risk of developing transfusion associated graft-versus-host reaction, if they are given nonirradiated blood. Our aim was to elucidate whether chromosome 22q11 deletion in children with syndromic conotruncal heart defects is associated with platelet abnormality.
Materials and Methods: The genetic analysis was performed by standard cytogenetic and Fluorescence in situ hybridization technique. The platelet parameters in 39 patients with chromosome 22q11 deletion were compared with 154 cases without deletion.
Results:… More >

Michael V. Di Maria¹, Matthew Mulvahill², James Jaggers³, David Dunbar Ivy¹, Adel K. Younoszai¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.2, pp. 311-318, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12574

Abstract Objective: Infants with single ventricle physiology typically undergo cardiac catheterization prior to superior cavopulmonary anastomosis (SCPA) to assess operative suitability. Predictors of poor outcome at sea level include elevated pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), indexed pulmonary vascular resistance (PVRi), age <3 months, significant atrioventricular valve regurgitation, among others. Increased altitude has vasoconstrictive effects on the pulmonary vasculature, which may affect pre-SCPA hemodynamics and outcomes. The goal of this study was to determine the predictive value of pre-SCPA catheterization data with regard to reaching Fontan palliation at altitude.
Design: A retrospective review revealed 150 patients who underwent pre-SCPA catheterization… More >

Chel-Guerrero LD¹, R Gómez-Cansino², SL Gúzman-Gutierrez³, MG Campos-Lara⁴, E Saury-Duch¹, F Díaz de León Sánchez⁵, R Reyes-Chilpa⁶, JA Mendoza-Espinoza⁷

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.87, pp. 68-71, 2018, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2018.87.068

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate extracts from the peels of Annona squamosa L. (purple sugar apple), Annona reticulata L. (custard apple), Chrysophyllum cainito L. (green star apple), and Melicoccus bijugatus Jacq. (mamoncillo), as potential sources of anti-HIV-1 agents. Methanolic extracts from the peels of the aforementioned tropical fruits were obtained by maceration. Antiviral activity was evaluated through HIV-1 RT inhibition by extracts, using a non-radioactive immuno/colorimetric assay (Lenti RT Activity Assay, Cavidi Tech). Assay was performed according to the protocol provided by the manufacturer. Extracts from the peels of A. squamosa, A. reticulata, and C. cainito showed high More >

Mehul Barde^1,2, Yusuf Celikbag³, Brian Via³, Sushil Adhikari⁴, Maria L. Auad^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.7, pp. 724-736, 2018, DOI:10.32604/JRM.2018.00116

Abstract Bio-based phenol-formaldehyde polymer (BioNovolac) was developed by reacting molar excess of bio-oil/phenol with formaldehyde in acidic medium. Glycidyl 3,5-diglycidoxybenzoate (GDGB), was prepared by direct glycidylation of α-resorcylic acid (RA), a naturally occurring phenolic monomer. GDGB was crosslinked in the presence of BioNovolac by anionic polymerization. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the formation of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks. The glass transition temperature and moduli of bio-based crosslinked systems were observed to increase with increasing GDGB content. Active chain density and mass retention measured by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and Soxhlet extraction, respectively, indicated a high crosslink More >

Haiyang Zhang^1,*, Qian He¹, Xiaoning Lu¹, A. Pizzi^2,3, Changtong Mei¹, Xianxu Zhan⁴

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.5, pp. 450-456, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634180

Abstract Double cantilever beam tests were used to measure the energy release rates of linear vibrational welded moso bamboo joints. The influence of the length of the preserved cracks, the different combinations of the inner and outer bamboo surfaces and the moisture content is studied herein. The experimental compliance method, which is based on linear elastic fracture mechanics and has been shown to be an ideal method, was used to analyze data with the power equation. The results show that the preserved initial crack length does not have a significant effect on the final measured energy More >