Ureteroscopy in infants and preschool age children: technique and preliminary results.

Introduction: We present our experience with the use of semirigid ureteroscopy for the treatment of ureteric stones in children less than or equal to 6 years of age.

Material And Methods: The records of 21 children (12 female, 9 male) with an average age of 4.7 years (range 8 months to 6 years) treated with semirigid ureteroscopy between June 2006 and July 2010 were reviewed.

Tamsulosin for the management of distal ureteral stones in children: a prospective randomized study.

Purpose: Based on efficacy demonstrated in the adult population, tamsulosin was evaluated with regard to facilitating ureteral stone expulsion in children presenting with distal ureteric calculi.

Patients And Methods: A prospective randomized controlled study involving 61 children with distal ureteric calculi <12 mm was performed. The children were randomly divided into two groups.

Antibody mechanics on a membrane-bound HIV segment essential for GP41-targeted viral neutralization.

Broadly neutralizing antibodies such as 2F5 are directed against the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of HIV-1 GP41 and recognize well-defined linear core sequences. These epitopes can be engrafted onto protein scaffolds to serve as immunogens with high structural fidelity. Although antibodies that bind to this core GP41 epitope can be elicited, they lack neutralizing activity.

The effect of different ethoxylations for sorbitan monolaurate on enhancing simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of wheat straw to ethanol.

In this paper, four nonionic surfactants with different hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) based on sorbitan monolaurate were synthesized by introducing ethylene oxide gas (n = 20, 40, 60, and 80 ethylene oxide units). The chemical structure of the prepared ethoxylated surfactants was confirmed using Fourier transform-infrared and (1)H NMR spectroscopes. The surface tension and thermodynamic properties of the prepared surfactants have been studied.

Optimization of van der Waals energy for protein side-chain placement and design.

Computational determination of optimal side-chain conformations in protein structures has been a long-standing and challenging problem. Solving this problem is important for many applications including homology modeling, protein docking, and for placing small molecule ligands on protein-binding sites. Programs available as of this writing are very fast and reasonably accurate, as measured by deviations of side-chain dihedral angles; however, often due to multiple atomic clashes, they produce structures with high positive energies.

Cinnamaldehyde protects from the hypertension associated with diabetes.

Here we investigated cinnamaldehyde (CA) effect on diabetes-induced hypertension. Insulin deficiency was induced by streptozotocin while, insulin resistance by fructose. Rats were left 8 weeks or 12 weeks after STZ or fructose administration respectively.

Efficacy and cardiovascular tolerability of continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration in acute decompensated heart failure: a randomized comparative study.

Background And Objectives: Recently, continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) has received increased attention in the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF). The aim of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of CVVHDF compared with intravenous furosemide in patients with CHF.

Methods: Forty patients having CHF were included in this prospective, randomized, comparative trial.

Treating ocular surface disease: new agents in development.

This paper reviews recent advances and investigation in the treatment of ocular surface pathology. There is significant investment in this area, paralleling the growing demand for more effective alternatives to current treatments. Clinicians are becoming more aware of surface pathology, yet the ability to treat the most common forms of ocular pathology are still limited to the few medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Nuclear-magnetic-resonance quantum calculations of the Jones polynomial.

The repertoire of problems theoretically solvable by a quantum computer recently expanded to include the approximate evaluation of knot invariants, specifically the Jones polynomial. The experimental implementation of this evaluation, however, involves many known experimental challenges. Here we present experimental results for small-scale approximate evaluation of the Jones polynomial by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); in addition, we show how to escape from the limitations of NMR approaches that employ pseudopure states.

Acromial impression fracture of the greater tuberosity with massive rotator cuff tear: this need not be a nightmare!

An avulsion fracture of the greater tuberosity of the humerus with associated rotator cuff tear is rare. The authors describe the unusual case of a shoulder injury with an isolated, displaced greater tuberosity fracture associated with a massive rotator cuff tear. Due to the rotator cuff dysfunction, this patient presented with significant functional loss.

Female genital mutilation/cutting and issues of sexuality in Egypt.

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), officially referred to as female circumcision and at community level as tahara (cleanliness), is still prevalent in Egypt. This study was designed to examine the role of female sexuality in women's and men's continued support for FGM/C, and their perceptions of its sexual consequences. The study was conducted in 2008-09 in two rural communities in Upper Egypt and a large slum area in Cairo.

Obesity and eating habits among college students in Saudi Arabia: a cross sectional study.

Background: During the last few decades, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) experienced rapid socio-cultural changes caused by the accelerating economy in the Arabian Gulf region. That was associated with major changes in the food choices and eating habits which, progressively, became more and more "Westernized". Such "a nutritional transition" has been claimed for the rising rates of overweight and obesity which were recently observed among Saudi population.

Fast localization of the optic disc using projection of image features.

Optic Disc (OD) localization is an important pre-processing step that significantly simplifies subsequent segmentation of the OD and other retinal structures. Current OD localization techniques suffer from impractically-high computation times (few minutes per image). In this work, we present a fast technique that requires less than a second to localize the OD.

Microleakage and shear punch bond strength in class II primary molars cavities restored with low shrink silorane based versus methacrylate based composite using three different techniques.

Objectives: This in vitro study aimed to evaluate the gingival microleakage in class II cavities in primary molars restored with a low shrink silorane resin composite (Filtek P90) or a nanohybride composite resin (Filtek supreme XT) using three different techniques, (total bonding, closed or open sandwich techniques) lined by nano-filled resin modified glass ionomer cement RMGIC (Ketac N100). Additionally, the shear punch bond strength between the two types of composite and KNIO0 was also examined.

Study Design: For microleakage test, two standardized class II slot cavities were prepared in proximal surfaces of 60 sound extracted primary molars which were divided into 2 groups of 30 each according to the type of composite.

Biochemical properties of alpha-amylase from peel of Citrus sinensis cv. Abosora.

alpha-Amylase activity was screened in the peel, as waste fruit, of 13 species and cultivars of Egyptian citrus. The species Citrus sinensis cv. Abosora had the highest activity.

The alphabeta T cell receptor is an anisotropic mechanosensor.

Thymus-derived lymphocytes protect mammalian hosts against virus- or cancer-related cellular alterations through immune surveillance, eliminating diseased cells. In this process, T cell receptors (TCRs) mediate both recognition and T cell activation via their dimeric alphabeta, CD3 epsilon gamma, CD3 epsilon delta, and CD3 zeta zeta subunits using an unknown structural mechanism. Here, site-specific binding topology of anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and dynamic TCR quaternary change provide key clues.

First report of Leishmania tropica from a classical focus of L. major in North-Sinai, Egypt.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is prevalent in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and previous research has consistently documented the etiologic agent to be Leishmania major. We report the first isolation of Leishmania tropica from human cases of CL in a Northern Sinai community bordering Palestine. Parasite culturing, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gene sequencing, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses indicate CL cases in this community were caused by either L.

Decoding of individuated finger movements using surface electromyography.

Upper limb prostheses are increasingly resembling the limbs they seek to replace in both form and functionality, including the design and development of multifingered hands and wrists. Hence, it becomes necessary to control large numbers of degrees of freedom (DOFs), required for individuated finger movements, preferably using noninvasive signals. While existing control paradigms are typically used to drive a single-DOF hook-based configurations, dexterous tasks such as individual finger movements would require more elaborate control schemes.

Stage III diffuse lamellar keratitis following conductive keratoplasty over a LASIK flap.

A 48-year-old man who had conductive keratoplasty (CK) for consecutive hyperopia following myopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) developed progressive diffuse lamellar keratitis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CK after LASIK that required surgical intervention for interface inflammation.

Positional effect of mutations in 5'UTR of hepatitis C virus 4a on patients' response to therapy.

Aim: To investigate the effects of mutations in domain III of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) internal ribosome entry sequences (IRES) on the response of chronic HCV genotype 4a patients to interferon therapy.

Methods: HCV RNA was extracted from 19 chronic HCV 4a patients receiving interferon/ribavirin therapy who showed dramatic differences in their response to combination therapy after initial viral clearance. IRES domain III was cloned and 15 clones for each patient were sequenced.

Strain-encoded MRI to evaluate normal left ventricular function and timing of contraction at 3.0 Tesla.

Purpose: To define the reproducibility of strain-encoded (SENC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for assessment of regional left ventricular myocardial strain and timing of contraction in a 3T MRI system.

Materials And Methods: The study population consisted of 16 healthy subjects. SENC measurements were performed in three short-axis (SA) slices (apical, mid, and basal) and three long-axis (LA) views (two-, three-, and four-chamber) for assessment of maximal transmural systolic strain and time to peak strain.

Background noise removal in cardiac magnetic resonance images using Bayes classifier.

Imaging of the heart anatomy and function using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool for diagnosing a number of heart diseases. Recently, a technique was developed to acquire cine sequence of the heart that generates a null (black) signal intensity for the blood aiming to increase the image contrast-to-noise ratio between the myocardium and the background. Nevertheless, the technique inherently suffers from elevated noise level which limits the contrast-to-noise ratio.

Ultrafast localization of the optic disc using dimensionality reduction of the search space.

Optic Disc (OD) localization is an important pre-processing step that significantly simplifies subsequent segmentation of the OD and other retinal structures. Current OD localization techniques suffer from impractically-high computation times (few minutes/image). In this work, we present an ultrafast technique that requires less than a second to localize the OD.

Inherent fat cancellation in complementary spatial modulation of magnetization.

An efficient fat suppression method is presented for MR tagging with complementary spatial modulation of magnetization (CSPAMM). In this method, the complementary modulation is applied to the water content of the tissues, while in-phase modulation is applied to the fat content. Therefore, during image reconstruction, the subtraction of the acquired images increases the tagging contrast of the water while cancels the tagging lines of the fat.

Regional right ventricular function and timing of contraction in healthy volunteers evaluated by strain-encoded MRI.

Purpose: To prospectively determine the feasibility and accuracy of strain-encoded (SENC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the characterization of the right ventricular free wall (RVFW) strain and timing of contraction at 3.0 Tesla (3T) MRI.

Materials And Methods: In 12 healthy volunteers the RVFW was divided into three segments (anterior, lateral, and inferior) in each of three short-axis (SA) slices (apical, mid, and basal) and into three segments (apical, mid, and basal) in a four-chamber view.