Role of Food Texture, Oral Processing Responses, Bolus Properties, and Digestive Conditions on the Nutrient Bioaccessibility of Al Dente and Soft-Cooked Red Lentil Pasta.

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of food texture, oral processing, bolus characteristics, and in vitro digestive conditions on the starch and protein digestibility of al dente and soft-cooked commercial red lentil pasta. For that, samples were cooked as suggested by the provider and their texture properties were promptly analysed. Then, normal and deficient masticated pasta boluses were produced by four healthy subjects, characterised in terms of their oral processing, bolus granulometry, texture and viscoelastic properties, and finally subjected to static in vitro digestion, according to the INFOGEST consensus for both adults and the older adult population.

Comparative study between chronic automated red blood cell exchange and manual exchange transfusion in patients with sickle cell disease: A single center experience from Saudi Arabia.

Background: Red cell transfusion remains the gold standard in managing sickle cell disease (SCD) with severe complications. Offering red blood cell exchange (RBCX) either manual exchange transfusion (MET) or automated RBCX (aRBCX) can reduce the complications of chronic transfusion and maintain target Hb thresholds. This study audits the hospital experience of overseeing adult SCD patients treated with RBCX, both automated and manual, and compares the safety and efficacy.

Preoperative Administration of Hycet Elixir Reduces Hospital Length of Stay After Pediatric Outpatient Adeno/Tonsillectomy.

Postoperative wound pain is commonly observed in the pediatric postanesthesia care unit (PACU) following tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and adenotonsillectomy (adeno/tonsillectomy), which contributes to increased medical care costs and delayed facility discharge. The purpose of this study was to review the benefits of preoperative administration of Hycet elixir (2.5 mg hydrocodone and 108 mg acetaminophen per 5 mL) in a pediatric population aged 1 to 9 years following adeno/tonsillectomy.

Biochemical and genotoxic effects in women exposed to pesticides in Southern Ecuador.

Toxicity refers to the potential of a substance such as a pesticide to cause damage to the structure or functions of an exposed organism. Pesticides can lead to harmful biological effects in exposed animals and their offspring over the medium and long term. They can affect the immunological, nervous, endocrine, and reproductive systems.

Viable control of an epidemiological model.

In mathematical epidemiology, epidemic control often aims at driving the number of infected humans to zero, asymptotically. However, during the transitory phase, the number of infected individuals can peak at high values. Can we limit the number of infected humans at the peak? This is the question we address.

Medical therapeutic itineraries of women with breast cancer diagnosis affiliated to the People's Health Insurance in San Luis Potosí, central Mexico.

This study aims to describe the medical itineraries followed by breast cancer women affiliated to the People's Health Insurance in San Luis Potosí, central Mexico. We used an ethnographic approach based on oral histories of 12 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the year prior to the first meeting. Two face-to-face sessions per participant lasting 60 minutes each were conducted followed by a telephone interview.

Functional outcome after anal sphincter injury and treatment with mesenchymal stem cells.

This research demonstrates the regenerative effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the injured anal sphincter by comparing anal sphincter pressures following intramuscular and serial intravascular MSC infusion in a rat model of anal sphincter injury. Fifty rats were divided into injury (n = 35) and no injury (NI; n = 15) groups. Each group was further divided into i.

Asthma indicators and neighborhood and family stressors related to urban living in children.

Objective: To examine differences in asthma outcomes by levels of child-reported neighborhood and family stress related to urban living in a sample of children and their caregivers.

Methods: A total of 208 urban children with asthma, ages 6-12 and their primary caregivers from African-American, Latino, and non-Latino white backgrounds were included in this study.

Results: Children's report of higher levels of stress was related to poorer asthma control.

Risk of infection and hernia recurrence for patients undergoing ventral hernia repair with non-absorbable or biological mesh during open bowel procedures.

Background: Ventral hernia repair (VHR) with mesh performed concurrently with colorectal surgery is presumably associated with significant risks of infection and recurrence. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outcomes of patients undergoing VHR with non-absorbable mesh (NAM) or biological mesh (BM) at the same time as open colorectal surgery.

Methods: A retrospective review of short- and long-term outcomes for 25 patients undergoing repair of VHR with NAM or BM at the same time as an open colorectal procedure from 1991 to 2007 was performed.

Mesenchymal stem cells can improve anal pressures after anal sphincter injury.

Objective: Fecal incontinence reduces the quality of life of many women but has no long-term cure. Research on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapies has shown promising results. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate functional recovery after treatment with MSCs in two animal models of anal sphincter injury.

Electrical stimulation of anal sphincter or pudendal nerve improves anal sphincter pressure.

Objective: Stimulation of the pudendal nerve or the anal sphincter could provide therapeutic options for fecal incontinence with little involvement of other organs. The goal of this project was to assess the effects of pudendal nerve and anal sphincter stimulation on bladder and anal pressures.

Design: Ten virgin female Sprague Dawley rats were randomly allocated to control (n = 2), perianal stimulation (n = 4), and pudendal nerve stimulation (n = 4) groups.

Polyakov loop and the hadron resonance gas model.

The Polyakov loop has been used repeatedly as an order parameter in the deconfinement phase transition in QCD. We argue that, in the confined phase, its expectation value can be represented in terms of hadronic states, similarly to the hadron resonance gas model for the pressure. Specifically, L(T)≈1/2[∑(α)g(α)e(-Δ(α)/T), where g(α) are the degeneracies and Δ(α) are the masses of hadrons with exactly one heavy quark (the mass of the heavy quark itself being subtracted).

Differences in Environmental Control and Asthma Outcomes Among Urban Latino, African American, and Non-Latino White Families.

Latino and African American children with asthma are at increased risk for asthma morbidity compared with non-Latino White children. Environmental control (ie, environmental exposures and family strategies to control them) may contribute to greater asthma morbidity for ethnic minority children living in urban environments. This study examined ethnic differences in a semi-structured assessment of environmental control, associations between environmental control and asthma outcomes (asthma control, functional limitation, and emergency department [ED] use), and ethnic differences in environmental triggers in a sample of urban Latino, African American, and non-Latino White families.

Low current electrical stimulation upregulates cytokine expression in the anal sphincter.

Aim: Stem cells are an emerging treatment for regeneration of damaged anal sphincter tissues. Homing to the site of injury can be potentiated by stromal derived factor 1 (SDF-1) and monocyte chemotactic protein 3 (MCP-3) expression. The effects of electrical stimulation (ES) on upregulation of these cytokines were investigated.

Chemokine upregulation in response to anal sphincter and pudendal nerve injury: potential signals for stem cell homing.

Purpose: Stromal derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and monocyte chemotactic protein-3 (MCP-3) are signals forcing the migration of bone marrow-derived stem cells to ischemic tissue. This study investigates SDF-1 and MCP-3 expression following direct injury to the anal sphincter and pudendal nerve and to determine if these same mechanisms have any role.

Methods: Chemokine expression was studied after anal sphincter injury in female rats after either a sphincterotomy (n = 15), pudendal nerve crush (PNC; n = 15), sham pudendal nerve crush (n = 15), or acted as unmanipulated controls (n = 5).

Quantification of neurological and other contributors to continence in female rats.

Smooth muscle, striated muscle, their central and peripheral innervations and control, and mucosal coaptation contribute to maintenance of continence. We used manual leak point pressure (mLPP) testing and electrical stimulation LPP (eLPP) testing in female rats to quantify the contribution of these factors to urethral resistance, a measure of continence. Abdominal muscles were electrically stimulated to induce leakage for eLPP.

Long-term effects on pressure and electromyography in a rat model of anal sphincter injury.

Purpose: The goal of this research was to study the chronic effects of pudendal nerve transection and sphincterotomy on the anal sphincter, because there is no good animal model investigating anal sphincter injury. Clinically, anal sphincter dysfunction impacts a cohort of women who have fecal incontinence; conclusions from the study can benefit research for new effective treatments.

Methods: Sixty-eight virgin Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated into control (n = 12), sphincterotomy (n = 28), and pudendal nerve transection (n = 28) groups and were evaluated before injury and immediately, 4 days, 14 days, and 28 days after.

Pelvic floor muscles and the external urethral sphincter have different responses to applied bladder pressure during continence.

Objectives: To determine the functional innervation of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) and whether there is PFM activity during an external pressure increase to the bladder in female rats.

Methods: Thirty-one female adult virgin Sprague-Dawley rats received an external increase in bladder pressure until urinary leakage was noted while bladder pressure was recorded (leak point pressure [LPP]) under urethane anesthesia. Six of the rats underwent repeat LPP testing after bilateral transection of the levator ani nerve.

Anal physiology testing in fecal incontinence: is it of any value?

Introduction: The prognostic value of postoperative manometry in fecal incontinence is still controversial. The aims of this study were to establish if Fecal Incontinence Severity Index (FISI) and Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (FIQL) scores correlate with anal manometry and endoanal ultrasound findings and to define if there is any prognostic value in performing anal manometry after patients are surgically treated for fecal incontinence.

Methods: Fifty-three patients, all women, were identified.

Effects of sphincterotomy and pudendal nerve transection on the anal sphincter in a rat model.

Purpose: Our objective was to define anal resting pressure and electromyography of the normal rat anal sphincter and investigate the short-term effects of both mechanical trauma to the anal sphincter muscles and pudendal nerve transection.

Methods: Forty-five virgin female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly allotted to three groups: controls (n = 21), sphincterotomy (n = 12), and pudendal nerve transection (n = 12). Anal pressure was monitored using a saline-filled balloon connected to a pressure transducer.

Sacral neuromodulation for the treatment of fecal incontinence and urinary incontinence in female patients: long-term follow-up.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate improvement in symptoms of fecal incontinence (FI) in a group of women who also had urinary incontinence (UI) and were successfully implanted with the sacral neuromodulation (SNM) device primarily for urinary incontinence in one US institution.

Methods: Twenty-four patients with FI and UI who failed to improve with conservative or standard surgical treatment underwent permanent SNM after a successful peripheral nerve stimulation test during 2003-2007. Wexner incontinence score, fecal incontinence quality of life (FIQL), and Bristol stool scales were recorded before and after treatment.

Electrophysiological function during voiding after simulated childbirth injuries.

During vaginal delivery dual injuries of the pudendal nerve and the external urethral sphincter (EUS), along with other injuries, are correlated with later development of stress urinary incontinence. It is not known how combinations of these injuries affect neuromuscular recovery of the micturition reflex. We investigated the EUS electromyogram (EMG) and the pudendal nerve motor branch potentials (PNMBP) during voiding 4 days, 3 weeks or 6 weeks after injury; including vaginal distension (VD), pudendal nerve crush (PNC), both PNC and VD (PNC+VD), and pudendal nerve transection (PNT); and in controls.