Complement Factor H Family Proteins Modulate Monocyte and Neutrophil Granulocyte Functions.

Besides being a key effector arm of innate immunity, a plethora of non-canonical functions of complement has recently been emerging. Factor H (FH), the main regulator of the alternative pathway of complement activation, has been reported to bind to various immune cells and regulate their functions, beyond its role in modulating complement activation. In this study we investigated the effect of FH, its alternative splice product FH-like protein 1 (FHL-1), the FH-related (FHR) proteins FHR-1 and FHR-5, and the recently developed artificial complement inhibitor mini-FH, on two key innate immune cells, monocytes and neutrophilic granulocytes.

Interaction of the Factor H Family Proteins FHR-1 and FHR-5 With DNA and Dead Cells: Implications for the Regulation of Complement Activation and Opsonization.

Complement plays an essential role in the opsonophagocytic clearance of apoptotic/necrotic cells. Dysregulation of this process may lead to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Factor H (FH), a major soluble complement inhibitor, binds to dead cells and inhibits excessive complement activation on their surface, preventing lysis, and the release of intracellular material, including DNA.

Outcomes of laparoscopic incarcerated inguinal hernia repair in children.

Aim: Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair (LIHR) is gaining widespread acceptance, but its role in the management of incarcerated cases is not well outlined. This review analyses the outcomes of laparoscopic repair of incarcerated inguinal hernia in children.

Patients And Methods: Literature was searched on PubMed using terms 'laparoscopic', 'incarcerated', 'inguinal', 'hernia' and 'children'.

Mucosectomy disrupting the enteric nervous system causes contraction and shrinkage of gastrointestinal flaps: potential implications for augmentation cystoplasty.

Introduction: Augmenting the bladder with a seromuscular gastrointestinal flap is a promising alternative approach aiming for a mucus-free bladder augmentation; however, the contraction (shrinkage) of the flaps remains a major concern. Enteric nervous system (ENS) abnormalities cause a failure of relaxation of the intestinal muscle layers in motility disorders such as Hirschsprung's disease and intestinal neuronal dysplasia. In mammals, the submucosal enteric nervous plexus contains nitrergic inhibitory motor neurons responsible for muscle relaxation.

[Foreign body aspiration of the lower airways in children - diagnosis in clinical practice].

Introduction And Aim: Rigid bronchoscopic foreign body removal is the gold standard procedure for foreign body aspiration. We have analysed our results of bronchoscopies and the accuracy of diagnosis among the paediatric population in Southeast Hungary.

Method: A retrospective study of children admitted because of suspected solid foreign body aspiration between 2006 and 2017 was performed.

Mucosectomy impairs ileal microcirculation and results in flap contraction after experimental ileocystoplasty.

Introduction: Bladder augmentation with demucosalized ileal flap is a promising alternative approach for mucus free bladder augmentation; however, the contraction of the flap is still a major concern. It has been hypothesized that mucosectomy causes ischemic damage, but no direct histological evidence has been found and attention is now focused on the urothelium cover to prevent the exposure of the denuded surface to urine or the use of balloons to keep the flaps distended.

Objective: Our aim was to study the effect of mucosectomy on the microcirculation of ileal flaps during reverse clam ileocystoplasty using direct intraoperative imaging of the ileum.

Strain Pattern in Supercooled Liquids.

Investigations of strain correlations at the glass transition reveal unexpected phenomena. The shear strain fluctuations show an Eshelby-strain pattern [∼cos(4θ)/r^{2}], characteristic of elastic response, even in liquids, at long times. We address this using a mode-coupling theory for the strain fluctuations in supercooled liquids and data from both video microscopy of a two-dimensional colloidal glass former and simulations of Brownian hard disks.

Intestinal Intramural Vascular Anastomoses.

Introduction: Present surgical techniques are rarely relying on intestinal intramural vascular anastomoses; however, this could open new limits in reconstructive surgery. Our aim was to study the efficacy of the antimesenteric and the longitudinal intramural vascular anastomoses in a porcine model.

Material And Methods: Five minipigs were used.

Alternative ileal flap for bladder augmentation if mesentery is short.

Purpose: To date the clam ileocystoplasty is the preferred method of bladder augmentation in children when the urodynamic problem is non-compliance and/or detrusor overactivity. The key to this technique is the incision of the bladder wall deep into the pelvis down to the trigone in order to avoid a diverticulum like neobladder and to provide adequate margin for augmentation. The detubularised ileum flap therefore has to reach to the bottom of the divided bladder on a reliable vascular pedicle without significant tension.

New alternative Mitrofanoff channel based on spiral intestinal lengthening and tailoring.

Introduction: The occasional lack of appendix and the increasing use of the Malone anterograde continence enema (MACE) procedure have expanded the need for alternative Mitrofanoff channels. The Monti procedure does not always provide adequate length, the anastomosis of the double Monti, and the potential kink of the Casale channel is not ideal for smooth catheterisation. We tested the concept of spiral intestinal lengthening and tailoring (SILT), we developed originally for short bowel syndrome, to create a long and straight alternative Mitrofanoff channel (Figure).

Tests of mode-coupling theory in two dimensions.

We analyze the glassy dynamics of binary mixtures of hard disks in two dimensions. Predictions of the mode-coupling theory (MCT) are tested with extensive Brownian dynamics simulations. Measuring the collective particle density correlation functions in the vicinity of the glass transition, we verify four predicted mixing effects.

Glass transition in confined geometry.

Extending mode-coupling theory, we elaborate a microscopic theory for the glass transition of liquids confined between two parallel flat hard walls. The theory contains the standard mode-coupling theory equations in bulk and in two dimensions as limiting cases and requires as input solely the equilibrium density profile and the structure factors of the fluid in confinement. We evaluate the phase diagram as a function of the distance of the plates for the case of a hard sphere fluid and obtain an oscillatory behavior of the glass transition line as a result of the structural changes related to layering.

Effect of mixing and spatial dimension on the glass transition.

We study the influence of composition changes on the glass transition of binary hard disk and hard sphere mixtures in the framework of mode coupling theory. We derive a general expression for the slope of a glass transition line. Applied to the binary mixture in the low concentration limits, this method allows a fast prediction of some properties of the glass transition lines.

Delocalization-localization transition due to anharmonicity.

Analytical and numerical calculations for a reduced Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain demonstrate that energy localization does not require more than one conserved quantity. Clear evidence for the existence of a sharp delocalization-localization transition at a critical amplitude A_c is given. Approaching A_c from above and below, diverging time scales occur.

Flow curves of colloidal dispersions close to the glass transition. Asymptotic scaling laws in a schematic model of mode coupling theory.

The flow curves, viz. the curves of stationary stress under steady shearing, are obtained close to the glass transition in dense colloidal dispersions using asymptotic expansions in the schematic F₁₂(γ)-model of mode coupling theory. The shear thinning of the viscosity in fluid states and the yielding of glassy states is discussed.

Shear stresses of colloidal dispersions at the glass transition in equilibrium and in flow.

We consider a model dense colloidal dispersion at the glass transition, and investigate the connection between equilibrium stress fluctuations, seen in linear shear moduli, and the shear stresses under strong flow conditions far from equilibrium, viz., flow curves for finite shear rates. To this purpose, thermosensitive core-shell particles consisting of a polystyrene core and a cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) shell were synthesized.