SSL-3

The most important pathogen for table grapes is Botrytis cinerea which causes a rapid deterioration of fruit. Postharvest losses are controlled with SO2 fumigations carried out every 7 or 10 days, but the use of this gas is becoming more difficult to justify because of undesirable effects on the fruit and the increasing concern for human health. Acetic acid, classified as a GRAS compound, can be employed with no restriction as preservative and represents a possible substitute to sulphur dioxide. The aims of the present work were: (1) to evaluate if repeated treatments with AAC during storage preserve table grapes fruit quality; (2) to verify the effectiveness of 3 different concentrations and time intervals between each treatment and compare the effects with SO2 treatment; The amounts of AAC used in each fumigation, performed for 15 minutes, were 30, 50 and 75 microL/L, and treatments were carried out 5, 3 and 2 times respectively during storage, in order to have the same final concentration (150 microL/L)...

Highly-luminescent nanophosphors have a decisive role in solid-state lighting (SSL) as well as in field emission display (FED) applications due to their potential use in fabrication of nanophosphor based FED and solid state display devices. Herein, the red emitting highly-luminescent Eu(3+)-Li(+) co-doped magnesium aluminate (MgAl2O4) nanophosphors were synthesized by a customized sol-gel route with an average particle size of 18 nm, which can be easily scaled up in a large quantity. The resulting nanophosphor exhibits hypersensitive red emission, peaking at 615 nm upon 394 nm excitation...

BACKGROUND: Leprosy has been a major public-health problem in many developing countries for centuries. According to the National Leprosy Elimination Programme report of March 2012, there were a total of about 0.13 million cases of leprosy in India, 9.7% of which were children. Numerous studies have investigated child leprosy amongst reported cases however, studies pertaining to proportion and characteristics of undetected childhood cases in the community are very few. AIM: To examine the clinical, bacteriological, and histopathological characteristics of newly detected child leprosy cases in the community...

OBJECTIVE: According to the social zeitgeber theory, the lack of social support (SS) may decrease circadian rhythm regularity. However, the effect of SS on social rhythms in major depression has never been investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between SS and social rhythms in elderly patients with major depression. METHODS: Case-control study on the relation of SS with social rhythm regularity in 213 elderly patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 183 elderly healthy comparison subjects (HCs)...

INTRODUCTION: To assess both the adequacy of surgical resection and the short-term postoperative outcomes for patients undergoing single-site laparoscopy (SSL) surgery involving low anterior resection (LAR) and abdominoperineal resection (APR) for malignancies. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Consecutive rectal and anal cancer patients who underwent SSL LAR and APR were studied. Use of neoadjuvant therapy, operative details, and 30-day complications were sought. Radial and distal margins of resection and the pathologist's evaluation of the mesorectum were analyzed...

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Our purpose was to verify whether extensive dissection toward the sacrospinous ligament (SSL) needed for mesh fixation during anterior compartment repair increases the risk of postoperative voiding difficulties. METHODS: A total of 124 patients after anterior compartment mesh repair without simultaneous suburethral sling placement operated on in the period 2005-2012 were enrolled in this retrospective observational study. Patients with previous anti-incontinence surgery with normal urodynamics were not excluded; 30 patients with incomplete data, severe perioperative complications, and urinary retention before and after the surgery were excluded...

Fungal laccases are well investigated enzymes with high potential in diverse applications like bleaching of waste waters and textiles, cellulose delignification, and organic synthesis. However, they are limited to acidic reaction conditions and require eukaryotic expression systems. This raises a demand for novel laccases without these constraints. We have taken advantage of the laccase engineering database LccED derived from genome mining to identify and clone the laccase Ssl1 from Streptomyces sviceus which can circumvent the limitations of fungal laccases...

BACKGROUND: We present here the first reported cases of patients undergoing gastric bypass with a hybrid technique that involves a new concept of percutaneous instruments and provides the advantages of minimally invasive single-port surgery while maintaining the triangulation, safety, and timing of operative procedures. METHODS: This was a prospective pilot study of eight patients selected for gastric bypass between December 2011 and January 2012 and treated by a technique that combined single SSL port and percutaneous surgical set PPS...

Excessive exposure to solar UVA and UVB radiation is widely considered to cause skin cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma and basalioma. Direct UVB damage to skin cell DNA as well as UV-induced chronic skin inflammation, accelerated keratinocyte proliferation, inhibited apoptosis, and immunosuppression seem to underlie the UV-induced carcinogenesis. Also, UVB induces cytochrome P450 subfamilies (CYP1A1 and CYP1B1) involved in metabolic activation of organic pro-carcinogens and their conversion to ultimate carcinogens...

Paclitaxel (PAC)-mediated apoptosis decompresses and primes tumors for enhanced deposition of nanoparticulate agents such as pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (DXR). A quantitative pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) approach was developed to analyze efficacy and identify optima for PAC combined with sterically stabilized liposome (SSL)-DXR. Using data extracted from diverse literature sources, Cremophor-paclitaxel (Taxol(®)) PK was described by a carrier-mediated dispositional model and SSL-DXR PK was described by a two-compartment model with first-order drug release...

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. OBJECTIVE: To study magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accuracy in diagnosing posterior ligamentous complex (PLC) damage, when applying the new dichotomic instability criteria in a prospective cohort of patients with vertebral fracture. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Recent studies dispute MRI accuracy to diagnose PLC injuries. They analyze the complex based on 3 categories (intact/indeterminate/rupture), including the indeterminate in the ruptured group (measurement bias) in the accuracy analysis...

OBJECTIVE:: According to the social zeitgeber theory, the lack of social support (SS) may decrease circadian rhythm regularity. However, the effect of SS on social rhythms in major depression has never been investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between SS and social rhythms in elderly patients with major depression. METHODS:: Case-control study on the relation of SS with social rhythm regularity in 213 elderly patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 183 elderly healthy comparison subjects (HCs)...

UNLABELLED: The study aimed to identify endogenous lipid mediators of metabolic and inflammatory responses of human keratinocytes to solar UV irradiation. Physiologically relevant doses of solar simulated UVA+UVB were applied to human skin surface lipids (SSL) or to primary cultures of normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK). The decay of photo-sensitive lipid-soluble components, alpha-tocopherol, squalene (Sq), and cholesterol in SSL was analysed and products of squalene photo-oxidation (SqPx) were quantitatively isolated from irradiated SSL...

Staphylococcus aureus is a prevalent and significant human pathogen. Among the repertoire of virulence factors produced by this bacterium are the 14 staphylococcal superantigen-like (SSL) proteins. SSL protein 4 (SSL4) is one member of this family and contains a highly conserved carbohydrate binding site also found in SSL2, SSL3, SSL5, SSL6, and SSL11. Recombinant SSL4(t), comprising amino acids 109 to 309 of Newman strain SSL4 (SSL4-Newman), has been shown to bind and be internalized by human granulocytes and macrophages in a sialic-acid (Sia)-dependent manner...

Secretory phospholipase A(2) (sPLA(2)) cleave phospholipids at sn-2 ester bonds, releasing lysophospholipids and fatty acids, and are over expressed in several pathologies, including inflammation, arthritis, sepsis and breast and prostate cancers. Herein we evaluated the therapeutic activity of liposomes engineered to be responsive to different sPLA(2) isoforms compared to clinically used long-circulating (pegylated) sterically stabilized liposomes (SSL) in vitro and in vivo, and assessed differences in roles of sPLA(2) in the mechanism of uptake and delivery of these nanoparticles...

PURPOSE: Developments in minimal access surgery brought a new concept: single-port endolaparoscopic surgery (SPES). The aim of our study is to verify the safety and feasibility of SPES TEP hernia repair and report our initial clinical outcome. METHODS: We prospectively collected data of all patients who underwent SPES TEP repair from May 2009 to December 2010. Data regarding patient demographics, type, size and location of hernia, port devices used, type of mesh and fixation, operative time, complications, length of stay and cosmetic results were collected and analyzed...

PURPOSE: Tumor vascular normalization by antiangiogenic agents may increase tumor perfusion but reestablish vascular barrier properties in CNS tumors. Vascular priming via nanoparticulate carriers represents a mechanistically distinct alternative. This study investigated mechanisms by which sterically-stabilized liposomal doxorubicin (SSL-DXR) modulates tumor vascular properties. METHODS: Functional vascular responses to SSL-DXR were investigated in orthotopic rat brain tumors using deposition of fluorescent permeability probes and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging...

Tizanidine HCl is a centrally acting α-2 adrenergic agonist muscle relaxant with a slightly bitter taste having short half-life of 2.5 h. In the present study effect of co-processed excipient bases in formulation of orodispersible tizanidine HCl tablets by direct compression method was investigated. Co-processed excipient of microcrystalline cellulose with SSL-hydroxypropylcellulose was prepared using spray drier in 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 ratio. Formulated tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, in vitro disintegration time and in vitro drug release...

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated operative outcomes and ergonomics for a magnetic camera (MAGS) used in conjunction with percutaneous instruments [percutaneous surgical set (PSS)] compared with single-site laparoscopic (SSL) and conventional laparoscopic (LAP) cholecystectomy techniques. METHODS: Four surgical trainees each performed three porcine cholecystectomies using three randomized techniques including MAGS/PSS, SSL, and LAP. The operative outcomes, procedure-specific ratings (1-5 scale; 1 = superior), workload (1-10 scale; 1 = superior), and global impressions (1-10 scale; 10 = superior) were recorded...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of transanal single port surgery in 15 consecutive patients. BACKGROUND: The current method of choice for local resection of rectal tumors is transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), a complex and expensive technique. Single access surgery is easy, relatively cheap, and more broadly applied in laparoscopy. Evidence regarding transanal use of single access ports is scarce. METHODS: Consecutive patients with a rectal lesion otherwise eligible for TEM were operated using the Single Site Laparoscopic Access System (SSL) and standard laparoscopic instrumentation...