Effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa supplementation on metabolism and bladder in obese rats.

Purpose: Hibiscus sabdariffa (HS) extract has several health benefits and anti-obesogenic effects. The aim of the present study was to assess whether the medicinal properties attributable to HS would prevent or mitigate bladder changes induced by obesity in an experimental model.

Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats were submitted to one of four different dietary interventions (12 animals each): G1, standard diet and water (controls); G2, standard diet and HS tea; G3, a palatable high-fat diet and water; and G4, high-fat diet diet and HS tea.

Fasting and 24-h urine pH in patients with urolithiasis using potassium citrate.

Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between the pH readings in 24-h urine and the random fasting specimen in patients with urolithiasis using 2 methods.

Methods: A total of 114 patients with urinary lithiasis using potassium citrate were prospectively analyzed. All patients collected 24-h urine and an additional sample, after nocturnal fasting, collected on the day they brought the 24-h sample at the lab.

Acute graft thrombosis in patients who underwent renal transplant and received anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents. A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: Thrombosis is a major cause of early allograft loss in renal transplantation. Herein, we assessed the frequency of acute graft thrombosis in patients who underwent renal transplant and received anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of all available case series studies of anticoagulant and/or antiplatelet prophylaxis of thrombosis in renal transplantation.

Impact of Time-Zero Biopsy on the Outcome of Transplanted Kidneys.

Background: A low supply of donated organs led to the expansion of criteria for kidney transplantation (KT), and the impact on late glomerular function rates (eGFR) is still uncertain. This study aimed to correlate the histologic findings at time-zero biopsy (TzB) with the final eGFR, to identify criteria that could help achieve a more thorough preimplantation evaluation of the organ.

Methods: Records from 395 adult deceased KTs were reviewed.

Random Close Packing as a Dynamical Phase Transition.

Sphere packing is an ancient problem. The densest packing is known to be a face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal, with space-filling fraction ϕ_{FCC}=π/sqrt[18]≈0.74.

Interstitial fluid velocity is decreased around cortical bone vascular pores and depends on osteocyte position in a rat model of disuse osteoporosis.

Muscle paralysis induced with botulinum toxin (Botox) injection increases vascular porosity and reduces osteocyte lacunar density in the tibial cortical bone of skeletally mature rats. These morphological changes potentially affect interstitial fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular porosity, which is thought to play a role in osteocyte mechanotransduction. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of disuse-induced morphological changes on interstitial fluid velocity around osteocytes in the bone cortex.

Challenges and Future Directions of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Education.

We discuss the new challenges and directions facing the use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) in education research, policy-making, and industry. In recent years, applications of big data and AI in education have made significant headways. This highlights a novel trend in leading-edge educational research.

Hyperuniform Structures Formed by Shearing Colloidal Suspensions.

In periodically sheared suspensions there is a dynamical phase transition, characterized by a critical strain amplitude γ_{c}, between an absorbing state where particle trajectories are reversible and an active state where trajectories are chaotic and diffusive. Repulsive nonhydrodynamic interactions between "colliding" particles' surfaces have been proposed as a source of this broken time reversal symmetry. A simple toy model called random organization qualitatively reproduces the dynamical features of this transition.

Lindemann Unjamming of Emulsions.

We study the bulk and shear elastic properties of barely-compressed, "athermal" emulsions and find that the rigidity of the jammed solid fails at remarkably large critical osmotic pressures. The minuscule yield strain and similarly small Brownian particle displacement of solid emulsions close to this transition suggests that this catastrophic failure corresponds to a plastic-entropic instability: the solid becomes too soft and weak to resist the thermal agitation of the droplets that compose it and fails. We propose a modified Lindemann stability criterion to describe this transition and derive a scaling law for the critical osmotic pressure that agrees quantitatively with experimental observations.

Effects of tadalafil to prevent injury on corpus cavernosum after vascular or nervous peri-prostatic bundle injury. Experimental model in rats.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of tadalafil (TD) in preventing histological alterations of the corpus cavernosum caused by isolated lesions of cavernous nerve (ILCN) and artery (ILCA) in rats.

Methods: Fifty male Wistar rats were randomly assigned in five groups: G1: control; G2: bilateral ILCN; G3: bilateral ILCA; G4: ILCN+TD; G5: ILCA+TD. The cavernous bodies were submitted to histomorphometry, immunohistochemistry and biochemical analysis.

Self-faceting of emulsion droplets as a route to solid icosahedra and other polyhedra.

Hypothesis: Temperature-controlled self-faceting of liquid droplets has been recently discovered in surfactant-stabilized alkane-in-water emulsions. We hypothesize that similar self-faceting may occur in emulsion droplets of UV-polymerizable linear hydrocarbons. We further hypothesize that the faceted droplet shapes can be fixed by UV-initiated polymerization, thus providing a new route towards the production of solid polyhedra.

Impact of vulvovaginal atrophy on pelvic floor muscle strength in healthy continent women.

Objectives: To assess the correlation between hormonal status and pelvic floor muscle strength.

Methods: A total of 140 continent women were prospectively evaluated, and divided into four groups according to age: group 1 (n = 34) aged 30-40 years; group 2 (n = 38) aged 41-50 years; group 3 (n = 35) aged 51-60; and group 4 (n = 33) aged >60 years. The following parameters were evaluated: demographic data using clinical questionnaire; hypermobility of the bladder neck using swab test; vaginal trophism by gynecological examination; hormonal status of the vagina by cytology; and pelvic floor muscle strength using a perineometer and electromyography.

Freezing on a sphere.

The best understood crystal ordering transition is that of two-dimensional freezing, which proceeds by the rapid eradication of lattice defects as the temperature is lowered below a critical threshold. But crystals that assemble on closed surfaces are required by topology to have a minimum number of lattice defects, called disclinations, that act as conserved topological charges-consider the 12 pentagons on a football or the 12 pentamers on a viral capsid. Moreover, crystals assembled on curved surfaces can spontaneously develop additional lattice defects to alleviate the stress imposed by the curvature.

Schooling impacts on the overactive bladder diagnosis in women.

Objective: To evaluate the overactive bladder (OAB) diagnosis using OAB-V8 and ICIQ-OAB questionnaires in women with different schooling and cultural levels.

Materials And Methods: Three hundred and eighty six healthy women answered a clinical questionnaire filling out information about schooling, demographic and gynecological data. The OAB-V8 and ICIQ-OAB questionnaires were used to evaluate OAB diagnosis and symptoms; and the QS-F questionnaire, to determine the sexual function.

Phase behavior of charged colloids at a fluid interface.

We study the phase behavior of a system of charged colloidal particles that are electrostatically bound to an almost flat interface between two fluids. We show that, despite the fact that our experimental system consists of only 10^{3}-10^{4} particles, the phase behavior is consistent with the theory of melting due to Kosterlitz, Thouless, Halperin, Nelson, and Young. Using spatial and temporal correlations of the bond-orientational order parameter, we classify our samples into solid, isotropic fluid, and hexatic phases.

Charged hydrophobic colloids at an oil-aqueous phase interface.

Hydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) colloidal particles, when dispersed in oil with a relatively high dielectric constant, can become highly charged. In the presence of an interface with a conducting aqueous phase, image-charge effects lead to strong binding of colloidal particles to the interface, even though the particles are wetted very little by the aqueous phase. We study both the behavior of individual colloidal particles as they approach the interface and the interactions between particles that are already interfacially bound.

Precise colloids with tunable interactions for confocal microscopy.

Model colloidal systems studied with confocal microscopy have led to numerous insights into the physics of condensed matter. Though confocal microscopy is an extremely powerful tool, it requires a careful choice and preparation of the colloid. Uncontrolled or unknown variations in the size, density, and composition of the individual particles and interactions between particles, often influenced by the synthetic route taken to form them, lead to difficulties in interpreting the behavior of the dispersion.

Soft Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Elastomers from Architecture-Driven Entanglement Free Design.

Soft, solvent-free poly(dimethylsiloxane) elastomers are fabricated by a one-step process via crosslinking bottlebrush polymers. The bottlebrush architecture prevents the formation of entanglements, resulting in elastomers with precisely controllable low moduli from 1 to 100 kPa, below the lower limit of traditional elastomers; moreover, the solvent-free nature enables their negligible adhesiveness compared to commercially available silicone products of similar stiffness.

Single-port retroperitoneal renal biopsy using standard urological instruments.

Objective: To describe the surgical technique and initial experience with a single-port retroperitoneal renal biopsy (SPRRB).

Materials And Methods: Between January and April 2013, five children underwent SPRRB in our hospital. A single 1.

Reliability of pelvic floor muscle strength assessment in healthy continent women.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare pelvic floor muscle (PFM) strength using transvaginal digital palpation in healthy continent women in different age groups, and to compare the inter- and intra-rater reliability of examiners performing anterior and posterior vaginal assessments.

Methods: We prospectively studied 150 healthy multiparous women. They were distributed into four different groups, according to age range: G1 (n = 37), 30-40 years-old; G2 (n = 39), 41-50 years-old; G3 (n = 39), 51-60 years-old; and G4 (n = 35), older than 60 years-old.

Semi-automatic behavior analysis using robot/insect mixed society and video tracking.

This paper proposes a novel robot/insect mixed society setup which enhances the possibilities for insect behavioral research and can be used as a powerful tool for interdisciplinary studies on insect behavior. Micro-robots are equipped with decoys so as to allow a controlled dynamic interaction with crickets, Gryllus bimaculatus. A camera records the interaction and the video is later processed for the automatic tracking of each encounter between cricket and robot.