Improved intracochlear biopolymeric drug delivery system: an study.

Background: The delivery of drugs into the inner ear is a challenging field of study due to the complex cochlear anatomy and physiology. The creation of an intracochlear device that allows for short- and long-term intracochlear delivery of the drugs with a minimal invasive technology is needed to prevent or treat conditions that can potentially prevent the development of permanent hearing loss.

Aim: This study intends to test the efficacy of DXM-infused PLGA microneedles created in our laboratory in an animal model of acute ototoxic injury.

Robust Computation and Analysis of Vibrational Spectra of Layered Framework Materials Including Host-Guest Interactions.

Layered framework materials, a rapidly advancing class of porous materials, are composed of molecular components stitched together via covalent bonds and are usually synthesized through wet-chemical methods. Computational infrared (IR) and Raman spectra are among the most important characterization tools for this material class. Besides the known spectra of the molecular building blocks and the solvent, they allow for monitoring of the framework formation during synthesis.

Standardization of a CT Protocol for Imaging Patients with Suspected COVID-19-A RACOON Project.

CT protocols that diagnose COVID-19 vary in regard to the associated radiation exposure and the desired image quality (IQ). This study aims to evaluate CT protocols of hospitals participating in the RACOON (Radiological Cooperative Network) project, consolidating CT protocols to provide recommendations and strategies for future pandemics. In this retrospective study, CT acquisitions of COVID-19 patients scanned between March 2020 and October 2020 (RACOON phase 1) were included, and all non-contrast protocols were evaluated.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Structural Health Monitoring and Computer Vision-Aided Procedure for Seismic Safety Measures of Linear Infrastructures.

Computer vision in the structural health monitoring (SHM) field has become popular, especially for processing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data, but still has limitations both in experimental testing and in practical applications. Prior works have focused on UAV challenges and opportunities for the vibration-based SHM of buildings or bridges, but practical and methodological gaps exist specifically for linear infrastructure systems such as pipelines. Since they are critical for the transportation of products and the transmission of energy, a feasibility study of UAV-based SHM for linear infrastructures is essential to ensuring their service continuity through an advanced SHM system.

Secondary Gains of Strategies to Prevent COVID-19 Infection in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Has the Frequency of Healthcare-Associated Infections Decreased?

Objective: To compare the frequency and distribution of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during COVID-19 infection.

Methods: We compared all cases hospitalized in the NICU and diagnosed with HAIs between 1 March - 1 September 2019 (pre-COVID-19 pandemic) and 1 March - 1 September 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Results: We evaluated a total of 957 babies, 427 babies in the pre-COVID-19 period and 530 babies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A novel index to predict postoperative hypocalcemia in primary hyperparathyroidism.

Bakground: Vitamin D (Vit D) deficiency is common in patients with hyperparathyroidism, but the importance of replacement before surgery is controversial. It can be predicted that hypocalcemia risk will be higher in patients with high bone turnover.

Aim: In this study, the effect of preoperative ALP/Vit D ratio on postoperative hypocalcemia was investigated.

A Displaced Mass in the Abdomen, Torsioned Ovary Cyst.

Ovarian cysts are one of the most common pathologies in the infancy period. Approximately 15% of intraabdominal masses seen in this period are genital origined and one-third of these masses are ovarian cysts. The incidence of ovarian cysts has been reported as 1 in 2500 live births.

Cyclotide-rich fractions containing nanofibers by electrospinning: preparation, characterization and examination of antimicrobial activity.

In this study, antimicrobial nanofibers were produced with the mixtures of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and cyclotide-rich fractions by electrospinning method. After extraction, the first separation was carried out with C18 flash chromatography and then fractioned into five separate parts by reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The molecular weights of cyclotides in each fraction were determined by quadrupole time-of-flight liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (Q-TOF LC-MS).

Single Fraction and Hypofractionated Radiation Cause Cochlear Damage, Hearing Loss, and Reduced Viability of Merlin-Deficient Schwann Cells.

Background: Vestibular schwannomas (VS) are benign intracranial tumors caused by loss of function of the merlin tumor suppressor. We tested three hypotheses related to radiation, hearing loss (HL), and VS cell survival: (1) radiation causes HL by injuring auditory hair cells (AHC), (2) fractionation reduces radiation-induced HL, and (3) single fraction and equivalent appropriately dosed multi-fractions are equally effective at controlling VS growth. We investigated the effects of single fraction and hypofractionated radiation on hearing thresholds in rats, cell death pathways in rat cochleae, and viability of human merlin-deficient Schwann cells (MD-SC).

BigNeuron: a resource to benchmark and predict performance of algorithms for automated tracing of neurons in light microscopy datasets.

BigNeuron is an open community bench-testing platform with the goal of setting open standards for accurate and fast automatic neuron tracing. We gathered a diverse set of image volumes across several species that is representative of the data obtained in many neuroscience laboratories interested in neuron tracing. Here, we report generated gold standard manual annotations for a subset of the available imaging datasets and quantified tracing quality for 35 automatic tracing algorithms.

A Robust Learning Algorithm Based on Particle Swarm Optimization for Pi-Sigma Artificial Neural Networks.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been frequently used in forecasting problems in recent years. One of the most popular types of ANNs in these days is Pi-Sigma artificial neural networks (PS-ANNs). PS-ANNs have a high order ANN structure and they use both multiplicative and additive neuron models in their architecture.

Effect of AR42 in Primary Vestibular Schwannoma Cells and a Xenograft Model of Vestibular Schwannoma.

Hypothesis: AR42, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, reduces viability of primary vestibular schwannoma (VS) cells and delays tumor progression and hearing loss (HL) in a xenograft model of VS.

Background: The impact of HDAC expression on AR42 response in primary VS cells is unknown, as well as the effects of AR42 on VS-associated HL and imbalance.

Methods: Primary human VS cells (n = 7) were treated with AR42 (0-3.

Computational descriptor analysis on excited state behaviours of a series of TADF and non-TADF compounds.

The thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) behaviours of seventeen organic TADF emitters and two non-TADF chromophores bearing various donor and acceptor moieties were investigated, focusing on their torsion angles, singlet-triplet gap (Δ), spin orbit couplings (SOC) and topological index. Electronic structure calculations were performed in the framework of the Tamm-Dancoff approximation (TDA) allowing the possible reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) pathways to be characterized. The electronic density reorganization of the excited states was checked also with respect to the different exchange-correlation functional and absorption spectra were obtained by considering vibrational and dynamical effects through Wigner sampling of the ground state equilibrium regions.

A new automatic forecasting method based on a new input significancy test of a single multiplicative neuron model artificial neural network.

The model adequacy and input significance tests have not been proposed as features for the specification of a single multiplicative neuron model artificial neural networks in the literature. Moreover, there is no systematic approach based on hypothesis tests for using single multiplicative neuron model artificial neural networks for forecasting purposes like classical time series forecasting methods. In this study, new methods are proposed to solve these problems.

Measuring Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter with Bedside Ocular Ultrasonography in Patients with Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) and clinical and carboxyhemoglobin levels in patients with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Material And Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study enrolled 55 consecutive adult patients with carbon monoxide poisoning. The demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients and the diameters of the optic nerve sheaths of both eyes of those patients at the time of admission and at the 6th hour after receiving 100% oxygen therapy and/or hyperbaric oxygen therapy were determined.

Photophysical Properties of Benzophenone-Based TADF Emitters in Relation to Their Molecular Structure.

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are commonly used in various apparatus, including organic light-emitting device-based displays, as they remarkably improve the internal quantum efficiencies. Although there is a wide range of donor-acceptor-based compounds possessing TADF properties, in this computational study, we investigated TADF and some non-TADF chromophores, containing benzophenone or its structural derivatives as the acceptor core, together with various donor moieties. Following the computational modeling of the emitters, several excited state properties, such as the absorption spectra, singlet-triplet energy gaps (Δ), natural transition orbitals, and the topological Φ indices, have been computed.

Frequency and Prognosis of Hydrops Fetalis: A 10-Year Single-Center Experience.

Objective: The study aims to evaluate the etiological distribution and prognosis of newborn infants with hydrops fetalis (HF).

Methods: All infants born in our hospital within the past 10 years and hospitalized with the diagnosis of HF were included in this retrospective descriptive study. Demographic characteristics, etiological distributions, treatment interventions, and prognosis information of the infants were recorded retrospectively.

Pupil responses in patients with COVID-19.

Aim: To compare pupillary responses in patients with Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) during active infection and at 3rd months post-infection.

Methods: This study included 58 COVID-19 cases (mean age 47.23 ± 1.

Comparison of Balloon Trocar versus Telescopic Dissection Method for TEP Inguinal Hernia Repair.

Objective: To compare the outcomes between two methods of dissection (balloon trocar vs. telescopic dissection) used in total extra-peritoneal (TEP) inguinal hernia repair.

Study Design: Comparative study.

WHY DIAGNOSTIC LAPAROSCOPY.

Introduction: Abdominal pain requires rapid diagnosis and treatment, especially in emergency circumstances. Sometimes the diagnosis of the disease cannot be accomplished with laboratory and imaging methods, and an invasive procedure such as diagnostic laparoscopy may be required to obtain a diagnosis. Diagnostic laparoscopy is also performed therapeutically, but laparotomy is inevitable in some cases.

Brain microvasculature has a common topology with local differences in geometry that match metabolic load.

The microvasculature underlies the supply networks that support neuronal activity within heterogeneous brain regions. What are common versus heterogeneous aspects of the connectivity, density, and orientation of capillary networks? To address this, we imaged, reconstructed, and analyzed the microvasculature connectome in whole adult mice brains with sub-micrometer resolution. Graph analysis revealed common network topology across the brain that leads to a shared structural robustness against the rarefaction of vessels.

Comparison of Total Body Irradiation-based Versus Chemotherapy-based Conditionings for Early Complications of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Children With ALL.

Background: Total body irradiation (TBI) is the cornerstone of conditioning regimens in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. As the late effects and survival comparison between TBI and chemotherapy were well analyzed before, in this study, we aim to focus on the first 100 days and early complications of transplantation.

Methods: This retrospective study involves 72 pediatric patients (0 to 18 y) underwent first hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia between October 2015 and May 2019.

Fluorescent Detection of Vestibular Schwannoma Using Intravenous Sodium Fluorescein In Vivo.

Background: Vestibular schwannoma (VS) are intracranial tumors caused by merlin deficiency. Sodium fluorescein (SF) is a fluorescent compound that accumulates in various intracranial tumors, causing tumors to emit green fluorescence after blue light excitation.

Hypothesis: Intravenous SF preferentially deposits in VS, helping surgeons differentiate tumor from surrounding tissue.

Threshold single multiplicative neuron artificial neural networks for non-linear time series forecasting.

Single multiplicative neuron artificial neural networks have different importance than many other artificial neural networks because they do not have complex architecture problem, too many parameters and they need more computation time to use. In single multiplicative neuron artificial neural network, it is assumed that there is a one data generation process for time series. Many time series need an assumption that they have two data generation process or more.