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Background A helium-based plasma device with minimal invasiveness selectively heats tissues via joule heating, ensuring safe external temperatures and eliminating the need to monitor the epidermal temperature. Methods From December 2022 to January 2024, Forty-six patients without prior bariatric surgery, who had localized lipodystrophy and mild-to-moderate skin laxity in various body areas, were enrolled in this prospective work. Liposuction was paired with a helium-based plasma radiofrequency device used for all patients. Data on demographics and postoperative complications were disclosed. A patient evaluation was conducted objectively and subjectively, using an independent plastic surgeon assessment and a patient satisfaction survey, respectively. Results Our technique was performed on 40 females (87%) and six males (13%), in various body areas: arm (fourteen cases: 30.4%), neck (ten: 21.7%), thigh (nine: 19.6%), abdomen (seven: 15.2%), back (three: 6.5%), gynecomastia (three: 6.5%), their age ranges from 23 to 57 years, and their body mass index (BMI) ranges from 24 to 34.6 kg/m2. Patients’ satisfaction at 6 months after surgery was 82.6% (38) satisfied, 15.2% (7) borderline, and 2.2% (1) unsatisfied. Individual plastic surgeon evaluation was 69.6% (32) excellent, 28.3% (13) good, and 2.1% (1) fair. The overall complications rates were postoperative edema in 22 cases (47.8%), ecchymosis in 11 cases (23.9%), persistent skin laxity in one case (11.1%), mild seroma in three cases (6.5%), pain and tingling in six cases (13%), and mild subcutaneous emphysema in four cases (8.7%). Conclusions Combined liposuction and helium-based plasma radiofrequency device usage are a safe, efficient, and minimally invasive substitute for excisional procedures in non-bariatric patients with localized lipodystrophy and mild-to-moderate skin laxity. Level of Evidence IV This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Many lactic acid bacteria (LAB), known for their human health benefits, are derived from milk and utilized in biotherapeutic applications or for producing valuable nutraceuticals. However, the specific role of milk-associated LAB in biotherapeutics remains underexplored. To address this, eight milk product samples were randomly selected from the Egyptian market, diluted, and then cultured anaerobically on MRS agar. Subsequently, 16 suspected LAB isolates were recovered and underwent rapid preliminary identification. Among these isolates, the Lactobacillus plantarum strain with accession number (OQ547261.1) was identified due to its strong antioxidant activity depending on the DPPH assay, L. plantarum displayed notable antioxidant activities of 71.8% and 93.8% at concentrations of 125–1000 µg/mL, respectively. While ascorbic acid showed lower concentrations of 7.81, 3.9, and 1.95 µg/mL which showed activities of 45.1%, 34.2%, and 27.2%, respectively. The anti-inflammatory efficacy of L. plantarum was evaluated based on its capability to prevent hemolysis induced by hypotonic conditions. At a concentration of 1000 µg/mL, L. plantarum could reduce hemolysis by 97.7%, nearly matching the 99.5% inhibition rate achieved by the standard drug, indomethacin, at an identical concentration. Moreover, L. plantarum exhibited high hemolytic activity at 100 µg/mL (14.3%), which decreased to 1.4% at 1000 µg/mL. The abundance of phenolic acids and flavonoids was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in L. plantarum . Real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) demonstrated that L. plantarum increased gene expression of the inflammatory marker TLR2 by 133%, and cellular oxidation markers SOD1 and SOD2 by 65% and 74.2%, respectively, while suppressing CRP expression by 33.3%. These results underscore L. plantarum’s exceptional anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. Furthermore, L. plantarum induces cancer cell death through necrotic nuclear DNA fragmentation. These findings suggest that L. plantarum is not only suitable for nutraceutical production but also holds potential as a probiotic strain. Future research should focus on enhancing the capacity of this strain across various industries and fostering innovation in multiple fields.

Background: Though acrylic resins possess many useful properties, denture fracture is nevertheless a familiar issue. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of low-percent recycled Zirconia nanoparticles as filler on the transverse strength, impact strength, surface hardness, water sorption, and solubility of resin using the sprinkle cold-curing technique. Materials and Methods: Various formulae were prepared and mixed with PMMA (polymer) powder containing varying percentages (0.01%, 0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5%) of recycled Zr[O.sub.2]NPs to mono-methyl methacrylate (MMA monomer). A 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) agent was used to functionalize recycled zirconia (Zr[O.sub.2]) nano-fillers. X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering were used to characterize the samples. For mechanical tests, standard metallic moulds (according to American Dental Association specification no. 27) were machined for 60 specimens' preparation, 12 for each percent (zero, 0.01%, 0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5%). A one-way ANOVA test was used to compare the five groups for parametric data, while the Kruskal-Wallis test was employed for nonparametric data. The P 0.05 value was accepted as the significance level. All formulae were tested for cytotoxicity at 24 and 48 hours on WI38 normal lung cell lines. Results: The XRD analysis demonstrated the tetragonal crystallographic structure of the recycled zirconia nanoparticles. Incorporating a low percentage of recycled Zr[O.sub.2] nanoparticles (0.01%, 0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5%) improved the tested properties of PMMA to different degrees in a significant and non-significant pattern, while the optimal tested percent was 0.3%. Conclusion: The 0.3% percentage of recycled zirconia nanoparticles maintained and improved the physical and mechanical properties of acrylic resin. Recycled Zr[O.sub.2]/PMMA nanocomposite is a synergistic candidate due to its economic return and clinical application safety. Keywords: acrostone, cold cure, novel, recycled zirconia, sprinkle

The phase stability and microstructure of ZrO 2 –5CaO and ZrO 2 –24MgO mixed coating (wt%) by air plasma spraying on 304 stainless steel substrates were investigated. A Ni–5Al (wt%) metallic bond coating was firstly sprayed between the substrate and the ceramic top layer. The results were compared with the individual coatings of ZrO 2 –5CaO and ZrO 2 –24MgO for a better understanding of the correlation between their microstructures and mechanical properties. Mixed zirconia coating was found to have a mixture of cubic and tetragonal phases that stabilized under different plasma spray conditions. Microscopic observations and elemental composition analysis of as-sprayed mixed coating showed that modified ceramic-matrix grains had been formed. Microsized ZrO 2 –5CaO particles were embedded in the matrix grain creating an intragranular microstructure. Results indicated that ceramic-matrix grains provided a diffusion barrier for the growth of oxides induced stress near and onto the bond layer that reduced cracks, thereby overcoming the top delamination of the ceramic coating. Moreover, disparity in wear resistance and microhardness behavior of the coatings was influenced by initial feedstock powder and matrix microstructures. Improvement in the wear resistance of the mixed zirconia coating was attributed to a decrease in oxide content, which resulted in an increase in intersplat cohesive strength.

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global health burden with irreversible progression and cardiovascular risk. Renal biopsy, while the gold standard for assessing kidney pathology, is invasive. Supersonic shear imaging (SSI) elastography is a promising non-invasive tool for quantifying tissue stiffness, potentially reflecting underlying fibrosis. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic value of SSI elastography for predicting renal histopathological abnormalities based on tissue stiffness and to evaluate its correlation with biopsy findings. Methods This cross-sectional study included 51 adult patients undergoing native kidney biopsy at Mansoura University Hospitals. All patients underwent SSI elastography before biopsy. Renal stiffness was measured in kilopascals in both kidneys. Histopathological findings, including interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and glomerulosclerosis, were correlated with elastographic data. Results Median right and left kidney stiffness were 7 (5.6–8.5) and 7.7 (6.8–10) kPa, respectively. Right kidney stiffness showed significant correlations with age ( r = -0.28, p  = 0.04) and eGFR ( r  = 0.288, p  = 0.04). In non-lupus nephritis cases, right kidney stiffness correlated negatively with serum creatinine ( r = -0.409, p  = 0.02) and interstitial fibrosis ( r = -0.377, p  = 0.03), and positively with eGFR ( r  = 0.438, p  = 0.01). ROC analysis yielded an AUC of 0.706 ( p  = 0.05) for predicting eGFR < 30 mL/min/1.73 m², with a cutoff of 6.9 kPa (sensitivity 71%, specificity 79%). Conclusions Supersonic shear wave elastography (SWE) is a promising non-invasive modality for predicting renal histopathological changes and assessing kidney function in CKD patients.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have gained attention for their anticancer and antimicrobial activity. Our study highlights a novel anti-virulence strategy against multidrug-resistant pathogens by showing that ZnO-NPs suppress bacterial virulence and quorum-sensing genes ( rmpA , fnbA , cna , and LuxS ) at sub-MIC levels. In this study, we synthesized ZnO-NPs using the chemical co-precipitation process, we confirmed their characteristics with the techniques TEM, XRD, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and measuring their zeta potential. ZnO-NPs are almost spherical, 30 nanometers in size, with a notable UV absorption at 375 nm and a zeta potential of -9.25 mV. ZnO-NPs showed impressive inhibition zones, especially against E. coli , with a zone size of 30.33 mm. The MIC of ZnO-NPs varied, with Staphylococcus aureus needing the highest concentration at 500 µg/mL, while E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa needed 62.5 and 125 µg/mL, respectively. We also looked at how these particles affect cancer cells and found they reduced their growth in a dose-dependent way, with IC50 values of around 79 and 151 µg/mL for MCF-7 and HepG2 cells. Interestingly, when we examined the bacteria at the genetic level, we saw that ZnO-NPs at 62.5 µg/mL resulted in down-expression of key virulence genes like rmpA , fnbA , and cna to about 60% of normal levels, and the quorum-sensing gene luxS to 80%. This suggests that even at lower doses, the particles can weaken bacterial ability to cause disease without being fully bactericidal. Overall, our results emphasize how ZnO-NPs can be both antibacterial and anticancer agents, especially by targeting gene expression to boost their effectiveness.

Many new consumer applications are based on the use of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, such as voice command interfaces, speech-to-text applications, and data entry processes. Although ASR systems have remarkably improved in recent decades, the speech recognition system performance still significantly degrades in the presence of noisy environments. Developing a robust ASR system that can work in real-world noise and other acoustic distorting conditions is an attractive research topic. Many advanced algorithms have been developed in the literature to deal with this problem; most of these algorithms are based on modeling the behavior of the human auditory system with perceived noisy speech. In this research, the power-normalized cepstral coefficient (PNCC) system is modified to increase robustness against the different types of environmental noises, where a new technique based on gammatone channel filtering combined with channel bias minimization is used to suppress the noise effects. The TIDIGITS database is utilized to evaluate the performance of the proposed system in comparison to the state-of-the-art techniques in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and seven different types of environmental noises. In this research, one word is recognized from a set containing 11 possibilities only. The experimental results showed that the proposed method provides significant improvements in the recognition accuracy at low signal to noise ratios (SNR). In the case of subway noise at SNR = 5 dB, the proposed method outperforms the mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) and relative spectral (RASTA)–perceptual linear predictive (PLP) methods by 55% and 47%, respectively. Moreover, the recognition rate of the proposed method is higher than the gammatone frequency cepstral coefficient (GFCC) and PNCC methods in the case of car noise. It is enhanced by 40% in comparison to the GFCC method at SNR 0dB, while it is improved by 20% in comparison to the PNCC method at SNR −5dB.

The smartphone market is rapidly spreading, coupled with several services and applications. Some of these services require the knowledge of the exact location of their handsets. The Global Positioning System (GPS) suffers from accuracy deterioration and outages in indoor environments. The Wi-Fi Fingerprinting approach has been widely used in indoor positioning systems. In this paper, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is utilized to improve the performance and to reduce the computation complexity of the Wi-Fi indoor localization systems based on a machine learning approach. The experimental setup and performance of the proposed method were tested in real indoor environments at a large-scale environment of 960 m2 to analyze the performance of different machine learning approaches. The results show that the performance of the proposed method outperforms conventional indoor localization techniques based on machine learning techniques.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria are acknowledged as one of the main factors contributing to chronic illnesses and fatalities globally. Numerous diseases, including bloodstream infections, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and surgical site infections, can be brought on by MDR bacteria. Therefore, a crucial topic of continuing research is the development of a novel and different treatment for MDR microbial pathogens. This work is introduce an alternative method for elimination of MDR bacterial isolates which are causative agents of urinary tract infection among people in Egypt. In our study, we need a novel strategy to combat MDR bacteria by green-synthesized metal nanoparticles (MNPs). That is due to the ability of MNPs to penetrate the cell wall and the cell membrane of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Clinical isolates of MDR bacteria had their antibiotic susceptibility assessed before being molecularly identified using 16 s rRNA, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis. Also, genetic profiles of isolated strains were performed using ISSR and SDS-PAGE. Finally, characterized plant-mediated silver nanoparticles derived from lemon and pomegranate peel extracts were evaluated against isolated multidrug-resistant bacterial stains. In our present trial, one-hundred urine samples were collected from 71 females and 29 males complaining of UTI (urinary tract infection) symptoms. One-hundred microbial isolates were isolated, including 88-g negative and only 8-g positive bacteria in addition to four yeast isolates (Candida species). A total of 72% of the isolated bacteria showed MDR activity. The most prevalent MDR bacterial isolates (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterococcus faecalis, and Klebsiella pneumoniae) were identified through 16S rDNA PCR sequencing as with accession numbers OP741103, OP741104, OP741105, OP741106, and OP741107, respectively. Lemon and pomegranate-mediated silver nanoparticles [Ag-NPs] were characterized by UV spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, and TEM with average size 32 and 28 nm, respectively. Lemon and pomegranate-mediated silver nanoparticles [Ag-NPs] showed an inhibitory effect on the selected five MDR isolates at MIC 50 and 30 [micro]g/mL, respectively. These common bacterial isolates were also genetically examined using ISSR PCR, and their total protein level was evaluated using SDS-PAGE, showing the presence of distinct genetic and protein bands for each bacterial species and emphasizing their general and protein composition as a crucial and essential tool in understanding and overcoming MDR behavior in UTI patients. Lemon and pomegranate-mediated silver nanoparticles [Ag-NPs] were found to have an inhibitory effect on MDR isolates. Therefore, the study suggests that [Ag-NPs] could be a potential treatment for MDR UTI infections caused by the identified bacterial species.

Advanced manufacturing is currently undergoing a significant transition towards human-robot collaboration. This shift has attracted considerable attention from researchers seeking to harness the synergistic potential of human and robotic capabilities across a range of applications and tasks. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the classification of robots, considering key aspects like architecture, mobility, function, size, autonomy, and human contact. The study goes deeper into collaborative robots by emphasizing the levels of interaction between robots and humans. To provide a comprehensive overview, a meticulous analysis of scientific publications spanning a two-decade period is conducted, with a focus on data collected over the past decade. Furthermore, the analysis extrapolates main trends and developments to offer insights for the next decade, thereby facilitating a comparative assessment of publication rates about both collaborative and industrial robots during this timeframe.