In Uganda, medicinal plants have been utilized to treat a variety of ailments, including cancer. However, there is little information available about the medicinal plants used to treat cancer in the ...Elgon subregion. As a result, the current study documented the plant species used in the management of cancer in the Elgon sub-region.
Data were gathered by observation, self-administered questionnaires, interview guides, and guided field trips. Analyzing descriptive statistics and creating graphs were done using SPSS (version 21.0) and GraphPad Prism® version 9.0.0, respectively. Well-established formulae were used to calculate quantitative indices. The narratives were interpreted using major theories and hypotheses in ethnobotany.
A total of 50 plant species from 36 families were documented, and herbal knowledge was mainly acquired through inheritance. Fabaceae and Asteraceae comprised more plant species used in herbal preparation. Most plants were collected from forest reserves (63%); herbal therapies were made from herbs (45%); and leaves were primarily decocted (43%). The most frequently used plants were Tylosema fassoglensis, Hydnora abyssinica, Azidarachata indica, Prunus Africana, Kigelia africana, Syzygium cumini, Hydnora africana, Rhoicissus tridentata, Albizia coriaria, and Plectranthus cuanneus. All the most commonly used plants exhibited a high preference ranking (60-86%) and reliability level (74.1-93.9%). Generally, the ICF for all the cancers treated by medicinal plants was close to 1 (0.84-0.95).
The ten most commonly utilized plants were favored, dependable, and most important for treating all known cancers. As a result, more investigation is required to determine their phytochemistry, toxicity, and effectiveness in both in vivo and in vitro studies. This could be a cornerstone for the pharmaceutical sector to develop new anticancer medications.
The peripheral refraction profile in myopes with different corrective modalities varies significantly for both distance and near viewing and will have implications in managing myopia.
This study ...investigated how the magnitude of peripheral myopic defocus induced by Ortho-K varies with and without accommodation, and how this compares to single vision spectacles and soft-contact-lenses (SCL).
Relative peripheral refraction (RPR) of 18 young adults (spherical equivalent −1.00 D to −4.50 D) was determined along the horizontal meridian (±10°, ±20°, ±25°) during distance (3-metres) and near viewing (0.2-metres), and along vertical meridian (±10°, ±15°) for distance viewing alone. Measurements were obtained in an uncorrected state and with single vision spectacles, soft contact lens and Ortho-K. Changes in RPR and astigmatic components were compared between distance and near viewing with all different modalities.
A significant interaction (p = 0.02) between relative peripheral refraction and the target distance (distance and near viewing) was found among different refractive modalities. Single overnight Ortho-K lens wear alone led to relative peripheral myopia for both distance (mean RPR ± SE: −0.92 ± 0.21D and −1.04 ± 0.22D) and near viewing (−0.71 ± 0.17D and −0.76 ± 0.20D). Comparisons of relative peripheral refraction between different corrective modalities at each eccentricity indicated statistical significance of RPR at extreme locations along both temporal and nasal meridian (±20 and ±25°, p < 0.05). RPR with soft contact lenses and spectacles were similar for both distance and near viewing (p > 0.05).
Single overnight Ortho-K lens wear alone shifted the RPR in the myopic direction for both distance and near viewing in comparison with single vision spectacles and soft contact lenses. The Ortho-K lens designs that offer a large amount of mid-peripheral corneal steeping, in-turn leading to high relative peripheral myopia for both distance and near viewing and might offer beneficial effects on myopia control.
To define the success of testis sperm extraction (TESE) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in azoospermic men with a history of chemotherapy.
In a retrospective study, 23 men with ...ejaculatory azoospermia and a history of chemotherapy underwent TESE in a search for usable spermatozoa. In six patients cryopreserved tissue and in nine patients fresh tissue provided sperm for an ICSI cycle. Histologic analysis of the testis was performed in all patients. The presence or absence of sperm, fertilization rates with ICSI, and final outcomes of pregnancy were recorded.
Spermatozoa were found on TESE in 15 (65.2%) of 23 men. On histopathology, the predominant pattern observed was Sertoli cell only (47.8%), followed by hypospermatogenesis (30.4%), mixed (17.4%), and late maturation arrest (4.3%). The fertilization rate was 65.2%, and ongoing/delivered pregnancies occurred in 30.8% of cycles. Six healthy boys and four healthy girls have been born to date.
Men who are azoospermic and have had prior cytotoxic therapy make up a small subgroup of males with nonobstructive azoospermia. It is important to define and characterize this subgroup and better define their true fertility potential. Approximately two thirds of these men have retrievable testis sperm, which may be used with ICSI to have healthy offspring. This exciting avenue for paternity has heretofore not been available to such patients.
Abstract Current clinical tools for evaluating fracture risk focus only on the mineral phase of bone. However, changes in the collagen matrix may affect bone mechanical properties, increasing ...fracture risk while remaining undetected by conventional screening methods such as dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative ultrasound (QUS). The mechanical response tissue analyzer (MRTA) is a non-invasive, radiation-free potential clinical tool for evaluating fracture risk. The objectives of this study were two-fold: to investigate the ability of the MRTA to detect changes in mechanical properties of bone as a result of treatment with 1 M potassium hydroxide (KOH) and to evaluate the differences between male and female bone in an emu model. DXA, QUS, MRTA and three-point bending measurements were performed on ex vivo emu tibiae before and after KOH treatment. Male and female emu tibiae were endocortically treated with 1 M KOH solution for 1–14 days, resulting in negligible collagen loss (0.05%; by hydroxyproline assay) and overall mass loss (0.5%). Three-point bending and MRTA detected significant changes in modulus between days 1 and 14 of KOH treatment (− 18%) while all values measured by DXA and QUS varied by less than 2%. This close correlation between MRTA and three-point bending results support the utility of the MRTA as a clinical tool to predict fracture risk. In addition, the significant reduction in modulus contrasted with the negligible amount of collagen removal from the bone after KOH exposure. As such, the significant changes in bone mechanical properties may be due to partial debonding between the mineral and organic matrix or in situ collagen degradation rather than collagen removal. In terms of sex differences, male emu tibiae had significantly decreased failure stress and increased failure strain and toughness compared to female tibiae with increasing KOH treatment time.
While carbon dioxide is the main cause for global warming, modeling short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) such as methane, ozone, and particles in the Arctic allows us to simulate near-term climate and ...health impacts for a sensitive, pristine region that is warming at 3 times the global rate. Atmospheric modeling is critical for understanding the long-range transport of pollutants to the Arctic, as well as the abundance and distribution of SLCFs throughout the Arctic atmosphere. Modeling is also used as a tool to determine SLCF impacts on climate and health in the present and in future emissions scenarios.
In this study, we evaluate 18 state-of-the-art atmospheric and Earth system models by assessing their representation of Arctic and Northern Hemisphere atmospheric SLCF distributions, considering a wide range of different chemical species (methane, tropospheric ozone and its precursors, black carbon, sulfate, organic aerosol, and particulate matter) and multiple observational datasets. Model simulations over 4 years (2008-2009 and 2014-2015) conducted for the 2022 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) SLCF assessment report are thoroughly evaluated against satellite, ground, ship, and aircraft-based observations. The annual means, seasonal cycles, and 3-D distributions of SLCFs were evaluated using several metrics, such as absolute and percent model biases and correlation coefficients. The results show a large range in model performance, with no one particular model or model type performing well for all regions and all SLCF species. The multi-model mean (mmm) was able to represent the general features of SLCFs in the Arctic and had the best overall performance. For the SLCFs with the greatest radiative impact (CH4, 03, BC, and SO(sup 2-)(sub 4)), the mmm was within ±25 % of the measurements across the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, we recommend a multi-model ensemble be used for simulating climate and health impacts of SLCFs.
Of the SLCFs in our study, model biases were smallest for C"4 and greatest for OA. For most SLCFs, model biases skewed from positive to negative with increasing latitude. Our analysis suggests that vertical mixing, long-range transport, deposition, and wildfires remain highly uncertain processes. These processes need better representation within atmospheric models to improve their simulation of SLCFs in the Arctic environment. As model development proceeds in these areas, we highly recommend that the vertical and 3-D distribution of SLCFs be evaluated, as that information is critical to improving the uncertain processes in models.
Objective: To describe a case involving the cryopreservation of testis tissue retrieved from a 15-year-old male teenager with Klinefelter’s syndrome.
Design: Case report.
Setting: An academic medical ...center.
Patient(s): A 15-year-old boy with Klinefelter’s syndrome.
Intervention(s): Microsurgical testis sperm extraction with cryopreservation of harvested tissue.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Spermatozoa within testis tissue.
Result(s): Successful extraction and cryopreservation of three vials of sperm-containing testis tissue. No effect on subsequent testosterone levels.
Conclusion(s): Testis tissue extraction in the adequately virilized but azoospermic young male with 47, XXY Klinefelter’s syndrome may be a strategy to preserve future biological paternity.
Summary Background Health-care-associated infections are a major threat to patient safety worldwide. Transmission is mainly via the hands of health-care workers, but compliance with recommendations ...is usually low and effective improvement strategies are needed. We assessed the effect of WHO's strategy for improvement of hand hygiene in five countries. Methods We did a quasi-experimental study between December, 2006, and December, 2008, at six pilot sites (55 departments in 43 hospitals) in Costa Rica, Italy, Mali, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. A step-wise approach in four 3–6 month phases was used to implement WHO's strategy and we assessed the hand-hygiene compliance of health-care workers and their knowledge, by questionnaire, of microbial transmission and hand-hygiene principles. We expressed compliance as the proportion of predefined opportunities met by hand-hygiene actions (ie, handwashing or hand rubbing). We assessed long-term sustainability of core strategy activities in April, 2010. Findings We noted 21 884 hand-hygiene opportunities during 1423 sessions before the intervention and 23 746 opportunities during 1784 sessions after. Overall compliance increased from 51·0% before the intervention (95% CI 45·1–56·9) to 67·2% after (61·8–72·2). Compliance was independently associated with gross national income per head, with a greater effect of the intervention in low-income and middle-income countries (odds ratio OR 4·67, 95% CI 3·16–6·89; p<0·0001) than in high-income countries (2·19, 2·03–2·37; p<0·0001). Implementation had a major effect on compliance of health-care workers across all sites after adjustment for main confounders (OR 2·15, 1·99–2·32). Health-care-workers' knowledge improved at all sites with an increase in the average score from 18·7 (95% CI 17·8–19·7) to 24·7 (23·7–25·6) after educational sessions. 2 years after the intervention, all sites reported ongoing hand-hygiene activities with sustained or further improvement, including national scale-up. Interpretation Implementation of WHO's hand-hygiene strategy is feasible and sustainable across a range of settings in different countries and leads to significant compliance and knowledge improvement in health-care workers, supporting recommendation for use worldwide. Funding WHO, University of Geneva Hospitals, the Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss Society of Public Health Administration and Hospital Pharmacists.
A 34-year-old white woman presented with an 8.5-cm left suprarenal mass. Evaluation revealed normal adrenal hormone function. Pathologic examination after surgical removal revealed a rare benign ...condition, intra-abdominal extralobar pulmonary sequestration (accessory lung).
Radiolabeled first-generation anti-tumor-associated glycoprotein-72 (TAG-72) monoclonal antibody (MAb), B72.3, has proven useful in detecting primary and secondary colorectal carcinoma. It has been ...anticipated that the development of second-generation, higher affinity, anti-TAG-72 MAbs, CC49 and CC83, would be of greater use in cancer detection and of value in radioimmunotherapy of human cancer. We compared the pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and immune responses of 131I-labeled CC49 and CC83 to 125I-labeled B72.3 by preoperatively coninjecting dual-labeled MAbs into 16 colorectal cancer patients. The imaging properties of radiolabeled CC49 and CC83 were also assessed. Pharmacokinetics of all three MAbs were identical, and there were no differences in the uptake of any of three MAbs in tumor and normal tissues. Maximum tumor uptake was 0.0041% of the injected dose/g for 125I-B72.3, 0.0024% for 131I-CC49, and 0.0029% for 131I-CC83. Radiolabeled CC49 and CC83 detected most known tumor sites on scintigrams without any clear advantage for either MAb. Nonspecific splenic and testicular uptake was frequently observed. Anti-idiotypic human anti-mouse antibody responses were seen more frequently with B72.3 than with CC49 or CC83. We conclude that higher affinity, radiolabeled anti-TAG-72 MAbs can detect colorectal cancer but do not penetrate these tumors more effectively than B72.3. Improvements in tumor detection and radioimmunotherapeutic strategies will likely require the administration of smaller fragments of MAb molecules or novel delivery systems rather than the continued development of higher affinity MAbs.
Understanding and quantifying the RLC characteristics of the embedded passives under thermomechanical deformation during fabrication and accelerated thermal conditions is necessary for their ...successful implementation. Embedded passives are composite layers with dissimilar material properties compared to the neighboring layers in the integral substrate. The ongoing project explores the fabrication, multifield physics-based reliability modeling and accelerated testing of embedded passive test vehicles. As a first step, in this paper, the effect of thermomechanical deformation on the electrical characteristics of embedded capacitors is studied at frequencies from 100 KHz to 2 GHz using two test vehicles. Test vehicles with embedded passives were fabricated and were subjected to accelerated thermal cycles between -55degC to 125degC, between -40degC to 125degC and high humidity and temperature conditions of 85degC/85% RH. Significant changes in the electrical parameters of the embedded capacitors are observed. The fabrication process mechanics with multiphysics global-local modeling methodology is demonstrated to study the effect of thermal cycling on the electrical characteristics of embedded capacitors. The results obtained from the multiphysics global-local modeling methodology are validated against the measured electrical characteristics of the fabricated functional test boards. The effect of changes in electrical parameters of embedded passives on system performance of low-pass filters is presented
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