Explore the vast range of titles available.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the possible association between maternal/neonatal 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OHD) levels and development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Study Design: One hundred and thirty-two preterm infants ⩽32 weeks of gestation who were diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome were enrolled. 25-OHD levels were determined in maternal/neonatal blood samples that were obtained at the time of admission to the neonatal intensive care unit. Result: A total of 100 infants were included and 31 (31%) developed bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Both maternal and neonatal 25-OHD levels in the BPD group were significantly lower compared with those in the no-BPD group ( P =0.0001). A positive correlation was detected between maternal and neonatal 25-OHD levels. All of the infants with BPD had a 25-OHD level <10 ng ml −1 , which represented severe deficiency. Univariate logistic regression analysis revealed that maternal/neonatal vitamin D levels were a significant predictor of BPD (odds ratio (OR): 0.76 and 0.61, respectively, P <0.001). Conclusion: We demonstrated for the first time that lower maternal and neonatal vitamin 25-OHD levels were associated with BPD development in preterm infants. However, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to delineate the possible link between vitamin D deficiency and BPD.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the serum mannose-binding lectin (MBL) levels and the frequency of MBL gene polymorphisms in infants with neonatal sepsis. Study Design: Between January 2008 and January 2010, a total of 93 infants were included in this study and 53 of them had neonatal sepsis diagnosis as study group and 40 infants who had no sepsis according to clinical and laboratory findings as control group. Result: Serum MBL levels were found to be low in 17 of 93 infants. Eleven of them were in the sepsis group and six of them were in the control group. Serum MBL levels were significantly lower in infants with sepsis compared with the control group. Frequencies of genotype AB and BB were also significantly higher in the study group compared with the control group. Most importantly, presence of B allele of MBL exon 1 gene was found to be associated with an increased risk for neonatal sepsis. Additionally, in the study group, the mean serum MBL levels were found to be significantly lower in the premature infants compared with the term infants. Pneumonia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) were significantly higher in infants with MBL deficiency compared with infants with normal MBL levels. Conclusion: Low MBL levels and presence of B allele of MBL exon 1 gene were found to be important risk factors for development of both neonatal sepsis and pneumonia, especially in premature infants. Low MBL levels and MBL gene polymorphisms might also be associated with inflammation-related neonatal morbidities such as BPD and IVH.

In this study, the performance of the wastewater treatment plant, which treats approximately 80,000 m 3 /day of domestic and industrial wastewater in the Bursa, Turkey, for the 2018–2020 period, is evaluated based on the analysis of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solid (SS), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), color, and some heavy metals (Cr +6 , CN − , Cd, Fe, Cu, and Zn) parameters. Treatment plant removal efficiencies were 61–91% for COD; 78–97% for BOD; 54–94% for SS; and 57–84% for TN. It was detected in the range of 23–84% for TP and 40–68% for color. The operating costs per treated wastewater volume were calculated as 0.0675 USD/m 3 and 2.94 USD/kg COD per organic load removed. The quality of treated water was compared with the discharge limits of the receiving medium, and no limit values were exceeded in any parameters during the monitoring years.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the role of serum amyloid A (SAA) in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and evaluation of clinical response to antibiotic therapy. We also aimed to compare the efficiency of SAA with that of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) in diagnosis and follow-up of neonatal sepsis in preterm infants. Study Design: A total of 163 infants were enrolled in this prospective study. The infants were classified into four groups: group 1 (high probable sepsis), group 2 (probable sepsis), group 3 (possible sepsis) and group 4 (no sepsis, control group). Blood samples for whole blood count, CRP, PCT, SAA and culture were obtained before initiating antibiotic treatment. This procedure was repeated three times at 48 h, 7 and 10 days. Result: Initial CRP, PCT and SAA levels were found to be positive in 73.2, 75.6 and 77.2% of all infants, respectively. Sensitivities of CRP, PCT and SAA at 0 h were 72.3, 74.8 and 76.4%, respectively. Although it was not statistically significant, SAA was found to be more sensitive than CRP and PCT in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. The area under the curve (AUC) for CRP, PCT and SAA at 0 h were 0.870, 0.870 and 0.875, respectively. Although the AUC for SAA at 0 h was higher than PCT and CRP, the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: SAA is an accurate and reliable marker for diagnosis and follow-up of neonatal sepsis. It is especially useful at the onset of inflammation for rapid diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and can be safely and accurately used in combination with other sepsis markers such as CRP and PCT in diagnosis and follow-up of neonatal sepsis in preterm infants.

Previous research indicates a high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among refugees. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective treatment for PTSD for victims of natural disasters, car accidents or other traumatic events. The current study examined the effect of EMDR on symptoms of PTSD and depression by comparing the treatment with a wait-list control condition in Syrian refugees. Adult refugees located in Kilis Refugee Camp at the Turkish-Syrian border with a PTSD diagnosis were randomly allocated to either EMDR (n = 37) or wait-list control (n = 33) conditions. All participants were assessed with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus at pre-intervention, at 1 week after finishing the intervention and at 5 weeks after finishing the intervention. The main outcome measures were the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. The Beck Depression Inventory and the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25 were included as secondary outcome measures. The Trial Registration no. is NCT01847742. Mixed-model analyses adjusted for the baseline scores indicated a significant effect of group at post-treatment indicating that the EMDR therapy group showed a significantly larger reduction of PTSD symptoms as assessed with the HTQ. Similar findings were found on the other outcome measures. There was no effect of time or group × time interaction on any measure, showing that the difference between the groups at the post-treatment was maintained to the 5-week follow-up. EMDR may be effective in reducing PTSD and depression symptoms among Syrian refugees with PTSD located in a refugee camp.

Recent studies suggest that dysbiosis in chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases gut-derived uremic toxins (GDUT) generation, leads to systemic inflammation, reactive oxygen species generation, and poor prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the effect of oligofructose-enriched inulin supplementation on GDUT levels, inflammatory and antioxidant parameters, renal damage, and intestinal barrier function in adenine-induced CKD rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control group (CTL, n = 12) fed with standard diet; and CKD group (n = 16) given adenine (200 mg/kg/day) by oral gavage for 3-weeks to induce CKD. At the 4th week, CKD rats were subdivided into prebiotic supplementation (5g/kg/day) for four consecutive weeks (CKD-Pre, n = 8). Also, the control group was subdivided into two subgroups; prebiotic supplemented (CTL-Pre, n = 6) and non-supplemented group (CTL, n = 6). Results showed that prebiotic oligofructose-enriched inulin supplementation did not significantly reduce serum indoxyl sulfate (IS) but did significantly reduce serum p-Cresyl sulfate (PCS) (p = 0.002) in CKD rats. Prebiotic supplementation also reduced serum urea (p = 0.008) and interleukin (IL)-6 levels (p = 0.001), ameliorated renal injury, and enhanced antioxidant enzyme activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (p = 0.002) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) (p = 0.001) in renal tissues of CKD rats. No significant changes were observed in colonic epithelial tight junction proteins claudin-1 and occludin in the CKD-Pre group. In adenine-induced CKD rats, oligofructose-enriched inulin supplementation resulted in a reduction in serum urea and PCS levels, enhancement of the antioxidant activity in the renal tissues, and retardation of the disease progression.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with the prognosis of newborns born to mothers with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), and to compare the infants with/without thrombocytopenia in terms of maternal and neonatal characteristics. Study Design: We reviewed the charts of 29 parturients with ITP and their newborns who were born between January 1998 and December 2008. Result: A total of 16 (55%) gravidas had been diagnosed with ITP before pregnancy and 13 (45%) were diagnosed during pregnancy. Thrombocytopenia was observed in 21 gravidas. In total, 17 (58%) gravidas received treatment to increase the platelet count. The majority of deliveries (72.5%) were vaginal. The infant platelet counts at birth ranged from 20 to 336 × 10 9 per liter. None of the neonates had complications attributable to the mode of delivery. Normal platelet counts were determined in 15 newborns, whereas 14 infants had thrombocytopenia at birth. Three (10.3%) neonates had mild, four neonates (13.7%) had moderate and seven neonates (24.1%) had severe thrombocytopenia. The age of the mothers having infants with thrombocytopenia was significantly higher (30±5.3 vs 25.3±3.8 years), most of the infants (10/14 (71%)) were males ( P <0.05). Conclusion: Pregnancy complicated with ITP generally has a good outcome. Although ITP in pregnancy carries a low risk, careful observation is required for the newborn of gravidas with ITP even when the infant has no bleeding complications at delivery, and infants may require treatment for thrombocytopenia.

The growth factor sources used in alveolar bone regeneration should be practical and at a level that provides maximum benefit and cost effectiveness. Autologous growth factors are easy and practical to obtain in clinical practice, but their effectiveness in bone regeneration should be assessed in vivo studies. The hypothesis of this study was that the contribution of bone derived growth factors source to bone formation is greater than that of blood-derived growth factor source. Thirty male New Zealand rabbits were utilized in the experiment. Four defects of 8 mm were organized in the calvarium of each rabbit, and four treatment procedures were implemented: (1) empty defect, (2) autograft and xenograft (3) autograft+xenograft functionalized with growth factors released from autograft (4) autograft+ xenograft with injectable platelet rich fibrin (i-PRF). Rabbits were sacrificed at 4, 8 and 12 weeks of healing. Micro-computed tomography and histomorphometrically analyses were performed. The statistical difference was evaluated using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance. The significance level was set as p < 0.05. The autograft+xenograft, autograft+xenograft functionalized with growth factors released from autograft and autograft+ xenograft with i-PRF provided comparable bone formation at 4 and 8 weeks. The autograft+xenograft with i-PRF revealed significantly higher new bone formation at 12 weeks compared to that of autograft+xenograft group. (p = 0.016) There was no difference in the new bone formation between autograft+xenograft with i-PRF and autograft+xenograft functionalized with growth factors groups. (p = 0.75) The residual graft remained comparable among treatment groups at all time points. (p = 0.05) CONCLUSIONS: The composite graft contains growth factors obtained from i-PRF showed better new bone formation. Both blood and bone-derived growth factor sources can be utilized to functionalize the osteoconductive graft materials.

. We present new high-resolution experimental data for the temperature behavior of optical birefringence for a series of mixture of the liquid crystals octyloxycyanobiphenyl (8OCB) and nonyloxycyanobiphenyl (9OCB) by using a rotating analyzer technique. The birefringence data have been used to probe the temperature dependence of the nematic order parameter S ( T ) . We have then arrived at values for possible entropy discontinuities at the nematic-smectic A transition temperature T N A from the detailed inspection of S ( T ) data in the immediate vicinity of T N A . The 9OCB mole fraction dependence of the obtained reduced entropy discontinuities has been shown to be well fitted with a crossover function which is itself consistent with the mean-field free energy expression with a non-zero cubic term arising from the Halperin-Lubensky-Ma (HLM) coupling. The obtained results are in good accordance with existing results from adiabatic scanning calorimetry (ASC). Our birefringence results and determined entropy discontinuities (consistent with calorimetry results) are in striking contrast with the recent birefringence results of Barman et al. (Phase Transit. 91 , 58 (2018) published online 16 Aug. 2017) claiming second-order nematic-to-smectic A transitions for all mixtures. In this paper we present a possible explanation for this discrepancy. We have also extracted the effective critical exponent values α e f f characterizing the critical fluctuations near the N-SmA transition for all compositions by using the fact that the temperature derivative of the order parameter S ( T ) near T N A exhibits the same power-law divergence as the specific heat capacity. Measurable latent heat values were extracted from optical birefringence data for mole fractions of 9OCB where the α e f f values are as low as 0.2, which is substantially lower than the tricritical value α T C P = 0 . 5 . This is qualitatively different from what has been observed so far in other liquid-crystal systems. Together with ASC data, these pecuilarities of the 8OCB+9OCB system render further convincing evidence for the presence of the HLM coupling effect at the N-SmA transition phase transition line. Graphical abstract

Performance of 16 (16 g) ( n =103) and 18 gauge (18 g) ( n =101) biopsy needles in transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided 10-core prostate biopsies were compared in terms of cancer detection and pre-defined specimen quality criteria in this prospective randomized study. Cancer detection rates of the two groups were similar, although the mean core volume of 16 g needles was almost twice that of 18 g needles. On the other hand, using 16 g needles significantly improved specimen quality by acquiring less empty cores, small cores and fragmented cores. There were no significant differences among the complication rates and VAS pain scores of the two groups. Sixteen gauge needles can safely be used in TRUS-guided prostate biopsies, as they improve specimen quality without increasing morbidity and patient discomfort.