Rafles

The quality assurance of synthetic CT (sCT) is crucial for safe clinical transfer to an MRI-only radiotherapy planning workflow. The aim of this work is to propose a population-based process assessing local errors in the generation of sCTs and their impact on dose distribution. For the analysis to be anatomically meaningful, a customized interpatient registration method brought the population data to the same coordinate system. Then, the voxel-based process was applied on two sCT generation methods: a bulk-density method and a generative adversarial network...

Objective: We investigated how a commercially available smartwatch that measures peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO2 ) can detect hypoxemia compared to a medical-grade pulse oximeter. Methods: We recruited 24 healthy participants. Each participant wore a smartwatch (Apple Watch Series 6) on the left wrist and a pulse oximeter sensor (Masimo Radical-7) on the left middle finger. The participants breathed via a breathing circuit with a three-way non-rebreathing valve in three phases...

Autophagy, a vital mechanism restricted in tissues, exerts its cytoprotective role through the degradation mechanism of damaged or aging organelles, harmful protein aggregates and intracellular pathogens, followed by energy furnishment. However, dysfunctional autophagy is associated with the development of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In pathological conditions, autophagy may be involved in the maturation, survival and proliferation of various immune and non-immune cells and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of RA...

In this study, we investigate the effect of the probiotic E. faecium 669 strain on the gut integrity of broilers and the effect on intestinal colonization with Salmonella Enteritidis. In the in vivo experiment, 120-day-old broilers (Ross 308) were divided into 4 equally sized groups. Group A received the probiotic as a single dose by spray at d 18 of incubation and group B received the probiotic in the drinking water daily throughout the experiment. Group C was untreated control. Group D received the antibiotic Apramycin sulfate in the drinking water...

A pair of 3,4- seco -cycloartane triterpenoid isomers with a rare peroxy bridge, namely, xuetonins A and B ( 1 and 2 ), four new lignans xuetonlignans A-D ( 3 - 6 ), a new sesquiterpene xuetonpene ( 7 ), and a new natural product xuetonin C ( 8 ), along with 43 known compounds, were obtained from the leaves of Tujia ethnomedicine, Kadsura heteroclita . Their structures and configurations were determined with the help of a combination of 1D- and 2D-NMR, HRESIMS spectra, electronic circular dichroism (ECD), and X-ray diffraction data...

Curcumin, with its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor properties, is widely used in the treatment of bone disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We investigated the effects of curcumin on fibroblast-like synoviocytes in RA and its underlying mechanism. mRNA and microRNA (miRNA) expression levels were determined using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Cellular functions were detected using cell counting kit-8, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine, Transwell, and flow cytometric assays...

BACKGROUND: Although radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation of cavo-tricuspid isthmus (CTI) is an established treatment for typical right atrial flutter (RAFL), it remains to be established whether local tissue impedance (LI) is able to predict effective CTI ablation and what LI drop values during ablation should be used to judge a lesion as effective. We aimed to investigate the ability of LI to predict ablation efficacy in patients with RAFL. METHODS: RF delivery was guided by the DirectSense™ algorithm...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease underlying a cascade of chronic inflammatory processes. Over the past decades, the response rate of effective RA treatments has remained scarce despite numerous advancements in the current therapeutic interventions, owing largely to the associated off-target adverse events and poor accumulation in the inflamed joints. Recently, there is a high interest in the development of targeted drug delivery system by using nanotechnology, as it can provide a handle to improve the therapy efficacy of RA...

Left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction and systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve (MV) occurs in 70% of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients. In individuals undergoing septal myectomy, concomitant MV surgery is considered for SAM with residual LVOT obstruction or mitral regurgitation (MR); however, the optimal approach remains debated. A literature search was performed in Pubmed, EMBASE, Ovid, and the Cochrane library of published articles through June 2021 reporting on combined septal myectomy and edge-to-edge MV repair for obstructive HCM...

Small signalling peptides are key molecules for cell-to-cell communications in plants. The cysteine-rich signalling peptide, rapid alkalinisation factors (RALFs) family are involved in diverse developmental and stress responses and have expanded considerably during land plant evolution, implying neofunctionalisations in the RALF family. However, the ancestral roles of RALFs when land plant first acquired them remain unknown. Here, we functionally characterised two of the three RALFs in bryophyte Physcomitrium patens using loss-of-function mutants, overexpressors, as well as fluorescent proteins tagged reporter lines...

Septal myectomy is indicated in patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and intractable symptoms. Concomitant mitral valve (MV) surgery is performed for abnormalities contributing to systolic anterior motion (SAM), or for SAM-mediated mitral regurgitation (MR) with or without left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction. One MV repair technique is anterior mitral leaflet extension (AMLE) utilizing bovine pericardium, stiffening the leaflet and enhancing coaptation posteriorly. Fifteen HCM patients who underwent combined myectomy-AMLE for LVOT obstruction or moderate-to-severe MR between 2009 and 2020 were analyzed using detailed echocardiography...

INTRODUCTION: Overexpressed inflammatory cytokines are the main factors causing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) tissue damage and pathological deterioration, and lncRNAs has found to beinvolved in some autoinflammatory diseases. METHODS: We designed this study to investigate the effect of lncRNA linc00152 on rheumatoid arthritis inflammation and explore its molecular mechanism. RESULT: We found that linc00152 was not only up-regulated in rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RAFLS), but also stimulated by TNF-α/IL-1β in adose- and time-dependent manner in RAFLS and this expression depends on the NF-κB signaling pathway...

BACKGROUND: Mitral valve repair with papillary muscle approximation (MVr-PMA) for severe secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) decreases MR recurrence compared with MVr alone. This study assessed the effects of MVr-PMA on left ventricular (LV) remodeling and shape, systolic function and strain mechanics. METHODS: Forty-eight patients who underwent MVr-PMA for severe secondary MR and had follow-up echocardiograms available for review were identified. Student's t-test, linear regression modeling, and receiver-operating characteristic curves were used in the statistical analyses...

Acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) and acid β-glucosidase 1 (GBA1) catalyze ceramide formation through different routes, and both are involved in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis as well as IL-6 production. However, whether ASM and GBA1 regulate IL-6 production in RA remains unknown. Serum ASM, GBA1, and ceramide levels were measured in RA patients and healthy controls by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and their correlations with clinical indicators of patients were evaluated. Pharmacologic inhibitors or small hairpin RNAs of ASM and GBA1 were employed to explore the roles of ASM and GBA1 in IL-6 production, cell behavior, and MAPK signaling in fibroblast-like synoviocytes from RA patients (RAFLS)...

BACKGROUND: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) development. The purpose of this study is to explore the function and mechanism of circRNA fragile mental retardation 2 (circ-AFF2) in the processes of rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RAFLSs). METHODS: Circ-AFF2, microRNA (miR)-650, and 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase (CNP) levels were determined in synovial tissues of RA and RAFLSs by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or Western blotting...

A Brazilian thermo-mechanical pulp mill (TMP) was evaluating the installation of a proposed bleaching process, with changes in the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the wastewaters and the Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). The objectives of this research were to evaluate the treatment plant configuration for the future industrial effluent, consisting of a flotation unit followed by an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB), an activated sludge process and nanofiltration (NF) using polymeric membranes, and to study the technical feasibility of recycling the treated effluents in the industrial process...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Objective To investigate the effect of interleukin-37 (IL-37) on the proliferation, apoptosis and migration ability of rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RAFLS) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and its underlying mechanism. Methods RAFLS were cultured in vitro and divided into the blank control group, LPS group and LPS combined with (50, 100, 200) ng/mL IL-37 groups. The CCK-8 assay was used to detect the proliferation of RAFLS. The apoptosis of RAFLS was detected by flow cytometry and the migration ability by cell wound scratch assay...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate the effects of microRNA-515-5p (miR-515-5p) on the expression of the WNT1-inducible-signaling pathway protein 1 (WISP-1) gene in rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synovial (RAFLS) cells following treatment with the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa-B ligand (RANKL). MATERIAL AND METHODS RAFLS cells were cultured in vitro and were divided into six study groups: a normal control group; a miR-515-5p mimic group; a miR-515-5p inhibitor group; a RANKL (50 ng/ml) treatment group; a miR-515-5p mimic+RANKL treatment group; and a miR-515-5p inhibitor+RANKL treatment group...