Airway epithelial cells are exposed to environmental toxicants that result in airway injury. Naphthalene (NA) causes site-selective damage to Clara cells in mouse distal airways. N-terminally ...truncated recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor (DeltaN23-KGF) protects against acute lung injury. The present study investigated whether or not DeltaN23-KGF protects against NA-induced acute Clara cell damage by measuring airway responses specifically and in order to identify underlying molecular mechanisms. Mice were treated with DeltaN23-KGF or PBS 33 h prior to injection of 200 mg.kg body weight(-1) NA. Lung function was analysed by head-out body plethysmography. Distal airways isolated by microdissection were assessed for cell permeability using ethidium homodimer-1. Immunohistochemistry of Clara cell-specific protein in conjunction with a physical dissector was used to quantify Clara cell numbers. RNA was isolated from frozen airways in order to analyse gene expression using quantitative RT-PCR. DeltaN23-KGF prevented NA-induced airflow limitation and Clara cell permeability, and resulted in twice as many Clara cells compared with PBS pre-treatment. DeltaN23-KGF-pre-treated mice exhibited increased expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen mRNA. Cytochrome P(450) isoform 2F2, which converts NA into its toxic metabolite, was reduced by approximately 50%. The present results demonstrate that pre-treatment with N-terminally truncated recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor protects against naphthalene-induced injury. This suggests that N-terminally truncated recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor exerts its beneficial effect through a decrease in the expression of cytochrome P(450) isoform 2F2.
Purpose
To compare soft-tissue cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT-P) and fiducial marker (CBCT-FM)-based image guided radiotherapy in prostate cancer patients.
Materials and methods
Sixteen prostate ...cancer patients were treated with volumetric modulated arc therapy. Manual alignment using CBCT-P and CBCT-FM was performed for each patient. Couch shifts were calculated and compared between methods in the left–right (
x
), superior–inferior (
y
), and anterior–posterior (
z
) directions.
Results
CBCT-P and CBCT-FM alignments were compared using 252 scans from the 16 patients. Mean displacement from zero was 2.4 ± 1.3, 1.7 ± 1.2, and 1.8 ± 1.1 mm for CBCT-P and 2.3 ± 1.3, 1.7 ± 1.1 and 1.8 ± 1.1 mm for CBCT-FM in the
x
,
y
and
z
directions, respectively. There was no difference in median displacement between CBCT-P and CBCT-FM; however, there was a significant positive correlation between CBCT-P- and CBCT-FM-based displacements in the
x
(
r
= 0.881;
p
< 0.001),
y
(
r
= 0.789;
p
< 0.001) and
z
(
r
= 0.856;
p
< 0.001) directions by linear regression analysis. Systematic deviations within each group were <1 mm; however, random and systematic errors were similar in the
x
and
y
directions but larger in the
z
direction.
Conclusion
Our study demonstrated that CBCT-FM was not superior to CBCT-P for image-guided radiotherapy in prostate cancer patients.
Abstract We build on Baqaee and Farhi (2019, 2021) and derive a theoretically grounded criterion that allows targeting bans on exports to a sanctioned country at the level of ∼5,000 six-digit HS ...products. The criterion implies that the costs to the sanctioned country are highly convex in the market share of the sanctioning parties. Hence, there are large benefits from coordinating export bans among a broad coalition of countries. Applying our results to Russia reveals that sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are not systematically related to our arguments once we condition on Russia’s total imports of a product from participating countries. We discuss drivers of these differences and then provide a quantitative evaluation of the export bans to show that (i) they are very effective with the welfare loss typically ∼100 times larger for Russia than for the sanctioners; (ii) improved coordination of the sanctions and targeting sanctions based on our criterion allows to increase the costs to Russia by about 80% with little to no extra cost to the sanctioners; and (iii) there is scope for increasing the cost to Russia further by expanding the set of sanctioned products.
The treatment of a pilon fracture type is possible from a medial, an anterolateral approach or both medial and lateral. The aim of study was compare the stability of two different plate fixation of a ...tibia pilon AO-43C1 type fractures.
In this study, three-dimensional finite element stress analysis was applied using isotropic materials and static linear analysis. Loading of 400 N force was applied to the model of a patient fixed in a standing position. In the model, first the fibula was treated by plating and then in one group the pilon fracture was treated by medial plating, and in the other by anterolateral plating. The displacement and stress values of the fragments of the fracture line were compared of the same points in each model.
The magnitude of the displacement of fragments in the total displacement magnitudes of X, Y, Z axis were measured in the medial plate and anterolateral plate. The anterolateral plate results were similar to those of the medial plate and the displacement values in the Y axis were determined to be lower than in the medial plate.
In AO 43 C1 distal tibia fractures, medial or anterolateral plates can be used, and the results of this study showed similar biomechanical stiffness in the two plates.
The method of Hamiltonian approach and the energy balance method are applied to obtain the periodic solutions of nonlinear oscillations of a punctual charge in the electric field of charged ring. The ...obtained approximate frequencies are accurate for the entire range of oscillation amplitudes. A good agreement of the approximate frequencies and periodic solutions with the exact ones are demonstrated and discussed. It is also proved that the results of the energy balance method are better than the Hamiltonian approach for solving this equation.
Frailty is one of the geriatric syndromes and has an important relationship with mortality and morbidity. The aim of this study is to present the characteristics, prevalence, and related factors of ...frailty in older adults in our country. The study included 1126 individuals over 65 years of age from 13 centers. Frailty was evaluated using the Fried Frailty criteria, and patients were grouped as “frail,” “pre-frail,” and “non-frail.” Nutritional status was assessed with “Mini Nutritional Test,” psychological status with the “Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-CES-D,” and additional diseases with the “Charlson Comorbidity index.” Approximately 66.5 % of the participants were between 65 and 74 years of age and 65.7 % were women. Some 39.2 and 43.3 % of the participants were rated as frail and pre-frail, respectively. The multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with frailty. It was observed that age, female gender, low education level, being a housewife, living with the family, being sedentary, presence of an additional disease, using 4 or more drugs/day, avoiding to go outside, at least one visit to any emergency department within the past year, hospitalization within the past year, non-functional ambulation, and malnutrition increased the risk of frailty (
p
< 0.05). Establishing the factors associated with frailty is highly important for both clinical practice and national economy. This is the first study on this subject in our country and will provide guidance in determining treatment strategies.
Although economic liberalization has been argued to promote political liberalization, this relationship is poorly understood and we do not consistently observe greater economic openness leading to ...more open and moderate political systems. We examine the connection between liberalization and moderation in the context of Islamist and Communist parties, both of which are characterized by ideologies opposed to democracy and the market. When will these ideological parties moderate by adopting more pragmatic agendas? We argue that competitive liberalization spurs the emergence of more moderate parties, but crony liberalization does not. In support of this, we use two sets of most different case comparisons in which we compare two instances of competitive liberalization (Turkey and Hungary) and two instances of crony liberalization (Egypt and Bulgaria). Our research offers an important clarification to existing explanations and a more generalizable theory of how and why liberalization is linked to political moderation.
All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is controversially discussed in emphysema therapy. We re-evaluated ATRA in the elastase model and hypothesised that beneficial effects should be reflected by increased ...alveolar surface area, elastin expression and downregulation of inflammatory mediators and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Emphysema was induced by porcine pancreatic elastase versus saline in Sprague-Dawley rats. On days 26-37, rats received daily intraperitoneal injections with ATRA (500 μg · kg(-1) body weight) versus olive oil. Lungs were removed at day 38. Rat alveolar epithelial L2 cells were incubated with/without elastase followed by ATRA- or vehicle-treatment, respectively. ATRA only partially ameliorated structural defects. Alveolar walls exhibited irregular architecture: increased arithmetic mean thickness, reduction in surface coverage by alveolar epithelial cells type II. ATRA only partially restored reduced soluble elastin. It tended to increase the ratio of ED1(+):ED2(+) macrophages. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells exhibited a proinflammatory state and high expression of interleukin-1β, cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant-1, tumour necrosis factor-α, nuclear factor-κB, MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-12, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and TIMP-2 in emphysema, with ATRA exerting only few effects. MMP-7 was highly induced by ATRA in healthy but not in emphysematous lungs. ATRA reduced both MMP-2 and TIMP-1 activity in BAL fluid of emphysematous lungs. ATRA-therapy may bear the risk of unwanted side-effects on alveolar septal architecture in emphysematous lungs.
PDF
