Toxicity Evaluation of Sulfobetainized Branched Polyethyleneimine via Antibacterial and Biocompatibility Assays.

Branched polyethyleneimine (PEI), possessing different types of amines-e.g., primary, secondary, and tertiary-in the polymer chains are well known for their antibacterial properties and DNA condensing ability, affording substantial advantages in many biomedical uses, including gene therapy.

Antipathogenic Activity of Betainized Polyethyleneimine Sprays Without Toxicity.

: The design of alternative antipathogenic sprays has recently attracted much attention due to the limitations of existing formulations, such as toxicity and low and narrow efficacy. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) is a great antimicrobial polymer against a wide range of pathogens, but toxicity limits its use. Here, betainized PEI (B-PEI) was synthesized to decrease the toxicity of PEI and protonated with citric acid (CA), boric acid (BA), and HCl to improve antimicrobial activity.

Rapid abdominopelvic MR imaging in the emergency department: establishing a program and addressing the challenges.

Utilization of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the pediatric emergency room or urgent care setting for abdominopelvic indications has been increasing. The creation and implementation of rapid urgent MRI programs can have various challenges. The purpose of this article is to describe a framework for the creation of a rapid urgent abdominopelvic MRI program in the pediatric emergency room setting.

Normal ovarian sizes on MRI in pediatric patients: a preliminary study.

Background: Ovarian enlargement is one of several findings of pathology, including ovarian torsion. With increasing use of MRI for acute abdominal pain in children, data for normal ovary size and appearance are needed.

Objective: To provide preliminary data on normal sizes of ovaries on MRI in pediatric patients.

Understanding Provider Cost of MRI for Appendicitis in Children: A Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing Analysis.

Objective: To use time driven activity-based costing to characterize the provider cost of rapid MRI for appendicitis compared to other MRI examinations billed with the same Current Procedural Terminology codes commonly used for MRI appendicitis examinations.

Methods: Rapid MRI appendicitis examination was compared with MRI pelvis without intravenous contrast, MRI abdomen/pelvis without intravenous contrast, and MRI abdomen/pelvis with intravenous contrast. Process maps for each examination were created through direct shadowing of patient procedures (n = 20) and feedback from relevant health care professionals.

Partial visualization of appendix on ultrasound: What does it mean in the child with suspected appendicitis?

Background: Visualization of the entire appendix, including the tip, is thought, but has not been demonstrated, to be important for exclusion of appendicitis by ultrasound.

Objective: To determine if incomplete visualization of the appendix has negative clinical ramifications including missed appendicitis.

Methods: Under IRB approval we retrospectively reviewed right lower quadrant ultrasound reports from January 2017 to December 2020 to identify examinations with impressions of full visualization of the normal appendix, non-visualization of the appendix with and without secondary findings of appendicitis, and partial visualization of the appendix.

Packaging and containerization of computational methods.

Methods for analyzing the full complement of a biomolecule type, e.g., proteomics or metabolomics, generate large amounts of complex data.

New advances in medical management of dry eye: optimizing treatment strategies for enhanced relief.

Purpose: Dry eye disease (DED) is a prevalent ocular surface disease that is conventionally characterized by tear film hyperosmolarity and instability. This review presents a summarized classification of DED, followed by a comprehensive discussion of the most recent topical and systemic medications and clinical recommendations for selecting the most appropriate option for each patient.

Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted on electronic databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, using keywords including "dry eye syndrome," "ocular surface disease," "medical management," "artificial tears," "topical immunomodulators," and "meibomian gland dysfunction.

A rigorous benchmarking of alignment-based HLA typing algorithms for RNA-seq data.

Accurate identification of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles is essential for various clinical and research applications, such as transplant matching and drug sensitivities. Recent advances in RNA-seq technology have made it possible to impute HLA types from sequencing data, spurring the development of a large number of computational HLA typing tools. However, the relative performance of these tools is unknown, limiting the ability for clinical and biomedical research to make informed choices regarding which tools to use.

Implementation of a Program for Appendicitis MRI in a Pediatric Hospital.

MRI is increasingly used as an alternate to CT for the evaluation of suspected appendicitis in pediatric patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with abdominal pain, when further imaging is needed after an initial ultrasound examination. The available literature shows a similar diagnostic performance of MRI and CT in this setting. At the authors' institution, to evaluate for appendicitis in children in the ED, MRI is performed using a rapid three-sequence free-breathing protocol without IV contrast media.

Rapid, free-breathing non-contrast MRI for first-line imaging evaluation of ovarian torsion in the emergency department.

Background: Transabdominal ultrasound (US) is first-line imaging to evaluate ovaries in girls presenting to the emergency department (ED) with suspected ovarian torsion. Ovaries may be difficult to visualize sonographically; therefore, prompt diagnosis using US alone can be challenging. Rapid MRI as first-line imaging may help streamline patient throughput, especially with increasing MRI availability in the ED.

Technical and Diagnostic Performance of Rapid MRI for Evaluation of Appendicitis in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

Rationale And Objectives: Rationale MRI is increasingly used for diagnosis of pediatric appendicitis in the emergency care setting. Scan and room time are important to optimize workflow, especially in situations with limited MRI availability and accessibility. To describe our process to optimize and implement a rapid, non-contrast, free-breathing MRI protocol for appendicitis and to characterize the accuracy for diagnosis.

Rapid Pathogen Purge by Photosensitive Arginine-Riboflavin Carbon Dots without Toxicity.

Photo-activatable antipathogenic carbon dots (CDs) were prepared by carbonization of citric acid and arginine (Arg) via 3 min microwave treatment for use in the eradication of common microorganisms. Nitrogen-doped Arg CDs were spherical in shape with a size range of 0.5 to 5 nm.

Carboxymethyl Chitosan Microgels for Sustained Delivery of Vancomycin and Long-Lasting Antibacterial Effects.

Carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCh) is a unique polysaccharide with functional groups that can develop positive and negative charges due to the abundant numbers of amine and carboxylic acid groups. CMCh is widely used in different areas due to its excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, water solubility, and chelating ability. CMCh microgels were synthesized in a microemulsion environment using divinyl sulfone (DVS) as a crosslinking agent.

Analytical code sharing practices in biomedical research.

Data-driven computational analysis is becoming increasingly important in biomedical research, as the amount of data being generated continues to grow. However, the lack of practices of sharing research outputs, such as data, source code and methods, affects transparency and reproducibility of studies, which are critical to the advancement of science. Many published studies are not reproducible due to insufficient documentation, code, and data being shared.

Biocompatible Glycol Chitosan Microgels as Effective Drug Carriers.

Glycol chitosan (GC) is a chitosan (CH) derivative with improved water solubility with regards to CH which affords significant solubility advantages. In this study, microgels of GC as p(GC) were synthesized by a microemulsion technique at various crosslinking ratios e.g.