Bilateral facial paralysis secondary to temporal bone trauma: A case report and literature review.

When temporal bone fractures are associated with facial palsy (FP) evolution the medical team have no much time to make a decision: to do or not to do a surgical approach? How to evaluate the necessity? When to do it and when is the correct time?

The effect of the volumetric flow rate and endotracheal tube diameter on the pressure distribution in human airways.

The comprehension of the fluid flow in the upper airways is of paramount importance when treating patients under clinical conditions that demand mechanical ventilation. Barotrauma and overdistension are related to undesirable pressures and might be responsible for morbidity and mortality. In the current work we use computational fluid dynamics to investigate the pressure field in the upper respiratory airways.

One Year of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Brazil: A Political and Social Overview.

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) became the deadliest pandemic of the new millennium. One year after it became a pandemic, the current COVID-19 situation in Brazil is an example of how the impacts of a pandemic are beyond health outcomes and how health, social, and political actions are intertwined.

Objectives: We aimed to provide an overview of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, from a social and political point of view, and to discuss the perspectives from now on.

Impact of COVID-19 Testing Strategies and Lockdowns on Disease Management Across Europe, South America, and the United States: Analysis Using Skew-Normal Distributions.

Background: As COVID-19 infections worldwide exceed 6 million confirmed cases, the data reveal that the first wave of the outbreak is coming to an end in many European countries. There is variation in the testing strategies (eg, massive testing vs testing only those displaying symptoms) and the strictness of lockdowns imposed by countries around the world. For example, Brazil's mitigation measures lie between the strict lockdowns imposed by many European countries and the more liberal approach taken by Sweden.

Mycobacterium infection as a mimicker of brain metastasis.

Mycobacterium infection is a differential diagnosis to be considered in brain multifocal lesions with peripheral enhancement.

COVID-19 impact on bladder cancer-orientations for diagnosing, decision making, and treatment.

The world is going through an unprecedented time in history, and Urologists are, like many other healthcare professionals, facing and combating on two fronts: against the pandemic itself and cancer. When looking at the fatality rates, bladder cancer overcomes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by far and can be as high as 52%, so Urologists must not postpone investigation. Cystoscopy remains the gold standard for the investigation of bladder cancer and computed tomography (CT) urography for obtaining images of the upper tract in cases of macroscopic hematuria.

Efficacy of stinging nettle extract in combination with ε-polylysine on the quality, safety, and shelf life of rainbow trout fillets.

The effects of incorporation of stinging nettle extract (3% and 6%) and ɛ-polylysine (0.1% and 0.2%) on chemical, microbial properties, and stability of rainbow trout fish fillets wrapped in polyethylene bags (in atmosphere condition) and refrigerated for 12 days at 4°C were evaluated.

Left Ventricular Concentric Geometric Patterns Are Associated With Worse Prognosis Among Patients With Type-A Aortic Dissection.

Background This study compared left ventricular (LV) characteristics between patients with type-A and type-B aortic dissection (AD) and evaluated the ability of LV remodeling phenotypes (hypertrophy, concentricity, or geometric patterns) to predict mortality in both AD types. Methods and Results We evaluated 236 patients with type A and 120 patients with type B who had echocardiograms within 60 days before or after AD diagnosis (median [25th, 75th percentiles] time difference between echocardiogram and AD diagnosis=1 [0, 6] days) from 3 centers. Patients were stratified according to LV phenotypes, and early (90-day) and late (1-year) mortality after AD diagnosis were assessed.

Conservative management of petrous apex abscess and Gradenigo's syndrome in a diabetic patient: Case report and literature review.

The case reported evidences the possibility of nonsurgical treatment in patients with abscesses located in regions difficult to reach surgically due to surgical limitations or possible sequelae related to surgical procedure.

Neutrophil extracellular trap regulators in sickle cell disease: Modulation of gene expression of PADI4, neutrophil elastase, and myeloperoxidase during vaso-occlusive crisis.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that generation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETosis), one of the components of immunothrombosis, is associated with the pathogenesis of both venous thromboembolism and sickle cell disease (SCD). NETosis is a complex process regulated by several proteins such as peptidyl arginine deaminase 4 (PADI4), neutrophil elastase (ELANE), and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Among these regulators, PADI4 is responsible of histone citrullination, an essential step for NETosis.

Enzyme-functionalised, core/shell magnetic nanoparticles for selective pH-triggered sucrose capture.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease which leads to high glucose levels in the blood, with severe consequences for human health. Due to the worldwide appeal for the reduction in calorie intake, this study presents the development of a nanomaterial able to capture sucrose selectively, thus providing a tool to remove naturally occurring sucrose from food, such as fruit juices, producing low-calorie juices for consumption. Magnetite nanoparticles (FeO NPs) coated with an inert material (SiO) and functionalised with the enzyme invertase were designed to remove sucrose from solutions.

Prophylactic dressings in the prevention of pressure ulcer related to the use of personal protective equipment by health professionals facing the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized clinical trial.

Device-related pressure injury (DRPI) is a serious problem that is affecting professionals working on the front lines against COVID-19 due to the prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). In addition to the physical and psychological integrity of professionals, these injuries can compromise the quality of care. Therefore, using technologies to prevent this adverse effect is an urgent matter.

Unraveling the relationship between exposed surfaces and the photocatalytic activity of AgPO: an in-depth theoretical investigation.

Over the years, the possibility of using solar radiation in photocatalysis or photodegradation processes has attracted remarkable interest from scientists around the world. In such processes, due to its electronic properties, AgPO is one of the most important semiconductors. This work delves into the photocatalytic activity, stability, and reactivity of AgPO surfaces by comparing plane waves with projector augmented wave and localized Gaussian basis set simulations, at the atomic level.

Critical transitions in rainfall manipulation experiments on grasslands.

As a result of climate and land-use changes, grasslands have been subjected to intensifying drought regimes. Extreme droughts could interfere in the positive feedbacks between grasses and soil water content, pushing grasslands across critical thresholds of productivity and leading them to collapse. If this happens, systems may show hysteresis and costly management interventions might be necessary to restore predrought productivity.

A 3D-Printed Hybrid Nasal Cartilage with Functional Electronic Olfaction.

Advances in biomanufacturing techniques have opened the doors to recapitulate human sensory organs such as the nose and ear in vitro with adequate levels of functionality. Such advancements have enabled simultaneous targeting of two challenges in engineered sensory organs, especially the nose: i) mechanically robust reconstruction of the nasal cartilage with high precision and ii) replication of the nose functionality: odor perception. Hybrid nasal organs can be equipped with remarkable capabilities such as augmented olfactory perception.

Prolonged APTT of unknown etiology: A systematic evaluation of causes and laboratory resource use in an outpatient hemostasis academic unit.

Background: A prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) of unknown cause is one of the most frequent reasons why outpatients are referred for hemostasis consultation. Nevertheless, very few data are available on the relative contribution of individual causes of this common clinical scenario. Here, we present a systematic evaluation of all causes of APTT prolongation in a consecutive population of outpatients referred for specialized hemostasis consultation during a 14-year period.

Impact of prophylaxis on health-related quality of life of boys with hemophilia: An analysis of pooled data from 9 countries.

Background: Prophylaxis reduces the frequency of bleeds in boys with severe hemophilia and is the standard care for their management in resource-abundant countries. The effect of prophylaxis on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) has not been established, because the sample sizes of most studies are too small to explore the relationship of multiple factors that influence HRQoL.

Methods: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of hemophilia severity and treatment regimen on HRQoL and to establish the minimum important difference (MID) using the international level of score distributions.

RadialPheno: A tool for near-surface phenology analysis through radial layouts.

Premise: Increasingly, researchers studying plant phenology are exploring novel technologies to remotely observe plant changes over time. The increasing use of phenocams to monitor leaf phenology, based on the analysis of indices extracted from sequences of daily digital vegetation images, has demanded the development of appropriate tools for data visualization and analysis. Here, we describe RadialPheno, a tool that uses radial layouts to represent time series from digital repeat photographs, and applies them to the analysis of leafing patterns and leaf exchange strategies of different vegetations.

Profile of patients and factors related to the clinical staging of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to identify the profile of patients diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and factors associated with the clinical stage of the disease.

Materials And Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 293 medical charts of patients with SCC treated at an oncology reference center in the city of Campina Grande (Brazil) between 2000 and 2006. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed with robust Poisson regression (α=5%).

NMR insights on nano silver post-surgical treatment of superficial caseous lymphadenitis in small ruminants.

Caseous lymphadenitis (CL), caused by a pathogen of the second class of biosafety - , is a chronic and severe infectious disease that affects small ruminants and requires long, ineffective treatment which generally leads to animal sacrifice so as to stop the disease spreading. The infected animals suffer the excision of affected superficial lymph nodes and post-surgical treatment with iodine (10% solution in ethanol) and, sometimes, prolonged antibiotic use, but only if the sick animals are of great importance to breeding. Herein, we propose a cheap and easy to apply treatment of CL with excellent results using biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNP) based technology.