How enhancers regulate wavelike gene expression patterns.

A key problem in development is to understand how genes turn on or off at the right place and right time during embryogenesis. Such decisions are made by non-coding sequences called 'enhancers.' Much of our models of how enhancers work rely on the assumption that genes are activated de novo as stable domains across embryonic tissues.

Thulium laser resection versus conventional transurethral resection of urinary bladder tumor: A comparative prospective study.

Background: Transurethral resection of bladder tumors (TURBT) is the standard management for urinary bladder tumors; however, new techniques as Thulium laser resection of bladder tumors (TmLRBT) have been introduced as a substitute to TURBT.

Objectives: In this study safety, efficacy, and tumor recurrence after TmLRBT and TURBT were prospectively compared in patients with primary (<4 cm) bladder tumors.

Patients And Methods: Between August 2019 and May 2021, patients with primary (<4 cm) bladder tumors were enrolled.

Randomized comparison of 4.5/6 Fr versus 6/7.5 Fr ureteroscopes for laser lithotripsy of lower/middle ureteral calculi: towards optimization of efficacy and safety of semirigid ureteroscopy.

Background And Purpose: To compare 4.5/6 Fr versus 6/7.5 Fr semirigid ureteroscopes in terms of safety and efficacy in adult non-obese patients with middle or lower ureteric stones.

Patterning with clocks and genetic cascades: Segmentation and regionalization of vertebrate versus insect body plans.

Oscillatory and sequential processes have been implicated in the spatial patterning of many embryonic tissues. For example, molecular clocks delimit segmental boundaries in vertebrates and insects and mediate lateral root formation in plants, whereas sequential gene activities are involved in the specification of regional identities of insect neuroblasts, vertebrate neural tube, vertebrate limb, and insect and vertebrate body axes. These processes take place in various tissues and organisms, and, hence, raise the question of what common themes and strategies they share.

Geometric models for robust encoding of dynamical information into embryonic patterns.

During development, cells gradually assume specialized fates via changes of transcriptional dynamics, sometimes even within the same developmental stage. For anterior-posterior (AP) patterning in metazoans, it has been suggested that the gradual transition from a dynamic genetic regime to a static one is encoded by different transcriptional modules. In that case, the static regime has an essential role in pattern formation in addition to its maintenance function.

Assessment of Cyanex 301 impregnated resin for its potential use to remove cobalt from aqueous solutions.

The feasibility of using Cyanex 301 impregnated onto biopolymer resin for removing cobalt from radioactive waste streams is investigated. The emulsion compositions for resin preparation were optimized to ensure compliance with nuclear grade resin specifications on particle size distribution and chemical stabilities using multi-variant analysis. The enhanced chemical stabilities of the resins in different solutions are attributed to the interaction between Cyanex 301 and the emulsifier with alginate via a reaction with the glycosidic bond.

Ergonomics and musculoskeletal symptoms in surgeons performing endoscopic procedures for benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Background And Purpose: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common urologic disorder affecting older men, necessitating medical or surgical intervention. Limited data exists regarding the effect these surgeries have on the endourologist's musculoskeletal system following the surgery because of the required difficult posture, prolonged procedures, repetitive movements, and the settings of an adjustable visual display terminal workstation. The aim of our study was to survey the prevalence and possible causes of musculoskeletal disorders among endourologists performing transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) or laser prostatectomy using either holmium laser enucleation or thulium laser enucleation.

The safety of ureteral stenting with the use of potassium citrate for management of renal uric acid stones.

Objectives: The objective is to evaluate the relative risks of ureteric stents application while managing uric acid stones with potassium citrate in terms of stone encrustations and urinary tract infection (UTI).

Patients And Methods: We prospectively enrolled patients with renal uric acid stones who received K citrate from 2013 to 2018. Patient's demographics were collected.

Speeding up anterior-posterior patterning of insects by differential initialization of the gap gene cascade.

Recently, it was shown that anterior-posterior patterning genes in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum are expressed sequentially in waves. However, in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an insect with a derived mode of embryogenesis compared to Tribolium, anterior-posterior patterning genes quickly and simultaneously arise as mature gene expression domains that, afterwards, undergo slight posterior-to-anterior shifts. This raises the question of how a fast and simultaneous mode of patterning, like that of Drosophila, could have evolved from a rather slow sequential mode of patterning, like that of Tribolium.

A re-inducible gap gene cascade patterns the anterior-posterior axis of insects in a threshold-free fashion.

Gap genes mediate the division of the anterior-posterior axis of insects into different fates through regulating downstream hox genes. Decades of tinkering the segmentation gene network of led to the conclusion that gap genes are regulated (at least initially) through a threshold-based mechanism, guided by both anteriorly- and posteriorly-localized morphogen gradients. In this paper, we show that the response of the gap gene network in the beetle upon perturbation is consistent with a threshold-free 'Speed Regulation' mechanism, in which the speed of a genetic cascade of gap genes is regulated by a posterior morphogen gradient.

The Effectiveness of Tamoxifen in the Prevention of Recurrent Urethral Strictures Following Internal Urethrotomy.

Objective: Tamoxifen was not used earlier in clinical practice to decrease the urethral re-stricture rate after visual internal urethrotomy (VIU). In this study, we are the first to report the use of Tamoxifen as an adjuvant therapy to decrease the re-fibrosis and stricture recurrence post-VIU.

Patients And Methods: Between 2015 and 2017, 60 patients underwent VIU for post-traumatic bulbar urethral stricture ≤1 cm.

Influence of postnatal hydroureter in determining the need for voiding cystourethrogram in children with high-grade hydronephrosis.

Objective: To evaluate the utility of hydroureter (HU) to identify high-grade vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR) in patients with high-grade postnatal hydronephrosis (PH).

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients' charts that had antenatal hydronephrosis from 2008 to 2014. Patients were excluded if they presented with febrile urinary tract infection (fUTI), neurogenic bladder, posterior urethral valve, multi-cystic dysplastic kidney, and multiple congenital malformations.

Enhancer identification and activity evaluation in the red flour beetle, .

Evolution of -regulatory elements (such as enhancers) plays an important role in the production of diverse morphology. However, a mechanistic understanding is often limited by the absence of methods for studying enhancers in species other than established model systems. Here, we sought to establish methods to identify and test enhancer activity in the red flour beetle, To identify possible enhancer regions, we first obtained genome-wide chromatin profiles from various tissues and stages of using FAIRE (formaldehyde-assisted isolation of regulatory elements)-sequencing.

Speed regulation of genetic cascades allows for evolvability in the body plan specification of insects.

During the anterior-posterior fate specification of insects, anterior fates arise in a nonelongating tissue (called the "blastoderm"), and posterior fates arise in an elongating tissue (called the "germband"). However, insects differ widely in the extent to which anterior-posterior fates are specified in the blastoderm versus the germband. Here we present a model in which patterning in both the blastoderm and germband of the beetle is based on the same flexible mechanism: a gradient that modulates the speed of a genetic cascade of gap genes, resulting in the induction of sequential kinematic waves of gap gene expression.

Mature Cystitic Teratoma of the Bladder Masquerading as a Distal Ureteral Stone.

A 27-year woman presented with irritative lower urinary tract symptoms and alleged small right distal ureteric stone that had been diagnosed with KUB and non-contrast spiral CT. Patient was scheduled for ureteroscopic lithotripsy, revealing absence of the presumed stone, while cystoscopy showed unexpected 2 cm pedunculated grayish white lesion, situated on the right lateral wall of the bladder with sparse hairs covering it. An incomplete TURBT was done; the histological findings correlated with the gross picture seen on cystoscopy.

Management of equivocal (early) Fournier's gangrene.

Background: Fournier's gangrene (FG) is an acute progressive necrotizing fasciitis of the genital area and perineum with possible extension to the abdominal wall. Surgical debridement is the gold standard management modality of established patients. Equivocal (early) FG represents a challenge in diagnosis.

Shadow Enhancers Mediate Dynamic Shifts of Gap Gene Expression in the Drosophila Embryo.

Drosophila patterning genes often contain pairs of primary and shadow enhancers that possess overlapping activities [1-5]. It has been suggested that this regulatory "redundancy" helps ensure reliable activation of gene expression under stressful conditions such as increases in temperature [4, 5]. There is also evidence that shadow enhancers help produce sharp on/off boundaries of gene expression in response to small changes in the levels of regulatory factors, such as the maternal Bicoid gradient [6, 7].

Caudal regulates the spatiotemporal dynamics of pair-rule waves in Tribolium.

In the short-germ beetle Tribolium castaneum, waves of pair-rule gene expression propagate from the posterior end of the embryo towards the anterior and eventually freeze into stable stripes, partitioning the anterior-posterior axis into segments. Similar waves in vertebrates are assumed to arise due to the modulation of a molecular clock by a posterior-to-anterior frequency gradient. However, neither a molecular candidate nor a functional role has been identified to date for such a frequency gradient, either in vertebrates or elsewhere.

A segmentation clock operating in blastoderm and germband stages of Tribolium development.

In Drosophila, all segments form in the blastoderm where morphogen gradients spanning the entire anterior-posterior axis of the embryo provide positional information. However, in the beetle Tribolium castaneum and most other arthropods, a number of anterior segments form in the blastoderm, and the remaining segments form sequentially from a posterior growth zone during germband elongation. Recently, the cyclic nature of the pair-rule gene Tc-odd-skipped was demonstrated in the growth zone of Tribolium, indicating that a vertebrate-like segmentation clock is employed in the germband stage of its development.

Comparisons of the embryonic development of Drosophila, Nasonia, and Tribolium.

Studying the embryogenesis of diverse insect species is crucial to understanding insect evolution. Here, we review current advances in understanding the development of two emerging model organisms: the wasp Nasonia vitripennis and the beetle Tribolium castaneum in comparison with the well-studied fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Although Nasonia represents the most basally branching order of holometabolous insects, it employs a derived long germband mode of embryogenesis, more like that of Drosophila, whereas Tribolium undergoes an intermediate germband mode of embryogenesis, which is more similar to the ancestral mechanism.

Genetic diversity among late blight resistant and susceptible potato genotypes.

RAPD polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to study the genetic diversity among a wild potato variety Solanum demissum (very resistant to late blight) and six potato cultivars (Hanna, Lady-Olympia, Lady-Rosetta, Spunta, Diamant and Cara) varied in their resistance to Phytophthora infestans. Cluster analysis of six potato genotypes showed that, all tested genotypes were separated into two clusters (1 and 2). Cluster 1, included only the wild potato variety (S.

Diagnosis of symptomatic and asymptomatic Trichomonas vaginalis infection by applying one tube nested PCR to vaginal discharge.

One tube nested-PCR targeting a species-specific Tv-E650 repeat family of T. vaginalis genome, was applied to vaginal discharge specimen to diagnose symptomatic and asymptomatic trichomoniasis. The test was compared with axenic culture examination, wet mount preparation and Papanicolaou stained smears.