Case report and literature review: primary cutaneous carcinosarcoma

Carcinosarcomas are rare but aggressive neoplasms commonly described in organs such as the breast, urinary bladder, uterus, liver, and lungs. Histopathologically, they are characterized by the presence of malignant epithelial and mesenchymal components. The exact histogenesis of carcinosarcomas remains unknown and is debated in the literature. Primary carcinosarcomas of the skin are uncommon. To our knowledge, 20 cases of primary cutaneous carcinosarcoma have been described in the world literature. Most of these tumors were seen on the head and neck region of older individuals, both male and female. Microscopically, the more common carcinoma component is a squamous cell carcinoma followed by basal cell carcinoma, whereas the most common sarcoma component is an osteosarcoma. We report an example of this rare entity and speculate on its histogenesis in the skin.     

Social Contact Patterns Associated With Tuberculosis: A Case-control Study in Southwest Iran

ObjectivesTuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern worldwide. Social contact patterns can affect the epidemiology and risk of airborne diseases such as TB. This study was designed to investigate the social contact patterns associated with TB.MethodsIn this case-control study, groups of participants with and without TB were matched by age and sex. Participants reported the nature, location, frequency, and average duration of social contacts over 1 month. The duration and number of social and spatial contacts were compared between groups using the chi-square test and the t-test. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to quantify the relationship between social contact time and TB status. Data were analyzed using Stata version 11 statistical software. A p-value of <0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance.ResultsIn this study, 80 patients with TB and 172 control participants were included, and a total of 3545 social contacts were registered. Social contact with family members (OR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.10 to 2.40), contact with a person with TB (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.01), and contact at the participant’s home (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.82) were significantly associated with TB status.ConclusionsThe duration of long-term social contact, rather than the number of contacts, may be the main contact-related factor associated with TB transmission in this population. The focus of contact-tracing efforts should be on finding and treating both family members and long-term contacts in non-household settings.     

Effect of surfactant concentration on the evaporation-driven deposition of carbon nanotubes: from coffee-ring effect to strain sensing

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as electrically conductive materials are of great importance in the fabrication of flexible electronic devices and wearable sensors. In this regard, the evaporation-driven self-assembly of CNTs has attracted increasing attention. CNT-based applications are mostly concerned with the alignment of CNTs and the density of CNT films. In the present work, we focus on the latter by trying to achieve an optimal evaporation-driven deposition with the densest CNT ring. Although surfactants are used for effective dispersion and colloidal stabilization of CNTs in the aqueous phase, their excessive usage induces Marangoni eddies in the evaporating sessile droplets, leading to poor ring depositions. Thus, there is an optimum surfactant concentration that contributes to CNTs deagglomeration and results in the densest ring-like deposition with relatively high thickness. We report that this optimum concentration for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a surfactant can be approximately considered as much as the concentration of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as the colloidal nanoparticles. Optimal depositions show the lowest electrical resistances for each CNT concentration, making them suitable for electronic applications. We also propose the multiple depositions method in which a new droplet is printed after the complete evaporation of the previous droplet. This method can lead to denser rings with a higher conductivity using lower concentrations of CNTs. Lastly, we fabricate strain sensors based on the optimal evaporation-driven deposition of CNTs which show higher gauge factors than the commercial strain gauges, corroborating the applicability of our method.

Our discovery reveals the existence of an optimum SDS/CNT concentration ratio to achieve the highest conductivity of ring deposition for strain sensing.     

Polyoxometalate supported on a magnetic Fe3O4/MIL-88A rod-like nanocomposite as an adsorbent for the removal of ciprofloxacin,tetracycline and cationic organic dyes from aqueous solutions

In this work, a magnetic H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/Fe₃O₄/MIL-88A (Fe) rod-like nanocomposite as a stable and effective ternary adsorbent was fabricated by the hydrothermal method and utilized for the removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP), tetracycline (TC) and organic dyes from aqueous solution. Characterization of the magnetic nanocomposite was accomplished by FT-IR, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, EDX, TEM, VSM, BET specific surface area and zeta potential analyses. The influencing factors on the adsorption potency of the H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/Fe₃O₄/MIL-88A (Fe) rod-like nanocomposite including initial dye concentration, temperature and adsorbent dose were studied. The maximum adsorption capacities of H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/Fe₃O₄/MIL-88A (Fe) for TC and CIP were 370.37 mg g⁻¹ and 333.33 mg g⁻¹ at 25 °C, respectively. In addition, the H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/Fe₃O₄/MIL-88A (Fe) adsorbent had high regeneration and reusability capacity after four cycles. In addition, the adsorbent was recovered through magnetic decantation and reused for three consecutive cycles without a considerable reduction in its performance. The adsorption mechanism was mainly ascribed to electrostatic and π–π interactions. According to these results, H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/Fe₃O₄/MIL-88A (Fe) can act as a reusable effective adsorbent for the fast elimination of tetracycline (TC), ciprofloxacin (CIP) and cationic dyes from aqueous solutions.

A magnetic Fe₃O₄/MIL-88A Fe rod-like nanocomposite containing H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ was fabricated and applied as a new magnetically recoverable ternary adsorbent to remove antibiotics and dyes from aqueous solutions.     

CO Oxidation over Pd Catalyst Supported on Porous TiO2 Prepared by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) of a Ti Metallic Carrier

A porous TiO₂ layer was prepared with the plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) of Ti. In a further step, Pd was deposited on the TiO₂ surface layer using the adsorption method. The activity of the Pd/TiO₂/Ti catalyst was investigated during the oxidation of CO to CO₂ in a mixture of air with 5% CO. The structure of the catalytic active layer was studied using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The PEO process provided a porous TiO₂ layer with a uniform thickness in the range of 5–10 µm, which is desirable for the production of Pd-supported catalysts. A TOF-SIMS analysis showed the formation of Pd nanoparticles after the adsorption treatment. The conversion of CO to CO₂ in all samples was achieved at 150–280 °C, depending on the concentration of Pd. The composition of Pd/ TiO₂/Ti was determined using ICP-MS. The optimum concentration of Pd on the surface of the catalyst was approximately 0.14% wt. This concentration was obtained when a 0.4% PdCl₂ solution was used in the adsorption process. Increasing the concentration of PdCl₂ did not lead to a further improvement in the activity of Pd/ TiO₂/Ti.     

Heart Failure after Laboratory Confirmed Influenza Infection (FLU-HF)

Background:Influenza has been shown to exacerbate heart failure (HF). Importantly, no study to date has examined the relationship between HF hospitalizations (HFH) with laboratory confirmed influenza infections. This study evaluated the association between laboratory confirmed influenza infection and HFH in the two largest hospitals in Saskatchewan, Canada.Methods:We used a retrospective self-controlled case series design to evaluate the association between laboratory-confirmed influenza infection and HFH. We compared the incidence ratio for HFH during the influenza risk interval with the control interval. We defined the influenza risk interval as the seven days after a laboratory confirmed influenza result and the control interval as one year before and after the risk interval.Results:We identified 114 HFH that occurred within one year before and after a positive test result for influenza between April 1, 2010, and April 30, 2018. Of these, 28 (28 admissions per week) occurred during the risk interval and 86 (0.853 admissions per week) occurred during the control interval. The incidence ratio of a HFH during the risk interval as compared with the control interval was 33.53 (95% confidence interval [CI], 21.89 to 51.36). A decline in incidence was observed after day seven; between days 8 to 14 and 14 to 28 incidence ratios was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.13 to 6.52) and 0.91 (95% CI, 0.22 to 3.68) respectively.Conclusion:We have observed a significant association between acute influenza infection and HFH. However, further research with a larger sample size and involving a multicenter setting is warranted.Highlights

• Influenza may contribute and exacerbate heart failure events especially during annual influenza season.
• Early identification of influenza among patients with heart failure, could lead to earlier treatment with antiviral medication, reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and tail off the morbidity and mortality.
• In this study, despite our efficient study design, our sample size was limited to only the two largest hospitals in the province, possibly excluding a significant population in remote areas.

     

A novel customizable modular bioreactor system for whole-heart cultivation under controlled 3D biomechanical stimulation

In the last decade, cardiovascular tissue engineering has made great progress developing new strategies for regenerative medicine applications. However, while tissue engineered heart valves are already entering the clinical routine, tissue engineered myocardial substitutes are still restrained to experimental approaches. In contrast to the heart valves, tissue engineered myocardium cannot be repopulated in vivo because of its biological complexity, requiring elaborate cultivation conditions ex vivo. Although new promising approaches—like the whole-heart decellularization concept—have entered the myocardial tissue engineering field, bioreactor technology needed for the generation of functional myocardial tissue still lags behind in the sense of user-friendly, flexible and low cost systems. Here, we present a novel customizable modular bioreactor system that can be used for whole-heart cultivation. Out of a commercially obtainable original equipment manufacturer platform we constructed a modular bioreactor system specifically aimed at the cultivation of decellularized whole-hearts through perfusion and controlled 3D biomechanical stimulation with a simple but highly flexible operation platform based on LabVIEW^®. The modular setup not only allows a wide range of variance regarding medium conditioning under controlled 3D myocardial stretching but can also easily be upgraded for e.g. electrophysiological monitoring or stimulation, allowing for a tailor-made low-cost myocardial bioreactor system.     

Combined effects of brachial pulse pressure and sialic acid for risk of cardiovascular events during 40 years of follow-up in 37 843 individuals

OBJECTIVE:: Pulse pressure (PP) is a risk marker for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals 50 years and older. Inflammation is suggested to influence atherosclerosis, but could also increase PP. We aimed to examine the combined effects of PP and the inflammatory marker sialic acid, and their independent roles on CVD risk. METHODS:: From a population-based study in Sweden between 1962 and 1965, 18?429 men and 19?414 women at the age of 50 or older were selected and followed for first CVD event until 2005. We investigated the biological interactions between sialic acid and PP. The associations of PP and sialic acid with risk of CVD were calculated by using Cox proportional hazards model. Adjustments were made for conventional risk factors, mean arterial pressure (MAP) and socioeconomic status. RESULTS:: The mean age was 59.5 (SD 6.5) years and the number of incident CVD events in men and women were 3641 and 3227, respectively. No biological interaction was seen between PP and sialic acid. In men, the adjusted hazard ratio for PP was 0.92 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88-0.96, P?相似文献   

Carotid webs and ischemic stroke: Experiences in a comprehensive stroke center

Background and purpose

Carotid webs are intraluminal filling defects at the carotid bulb which are considered rare, though possibly underappreciated entities with recent studies demonstrating a likely casual association with ischemic stroke. The purpose of the study is to describe our recent experience with clinical and imaging manifestations of carotid webs.