The Presence of Portal Vein Thrombosis Alters the Classic Enhancement Associated with Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Digestive Diseases and Sciences - To determine whether the presence of portal vein thrombosis (PVT) where venous flow within the liver may be altered may delay the diagnosis of HCC and be...     

Identification of potential inhibitors of Zika virus NS5 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase through virtual screening and molecular dynamic simulations

Zika virus (ZIKV) is one of the mosquito borne flavivirus with several outbreaks in past few years in tropical and subtropical regions. The non-structural proteins of flaviviruses are suitable active targets for inhibitory drugs due to their role in pathogenicity. In ZIKV, the non-structural protein 5 (NS5) RNA-Dependent RNA polymerase replicates its genome. Here we have performed virtual screening to identify suitable ligands that can potentially halt the ZIKV NS5 RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). During this process, we searched and screened a library of ligands against ZIKV NS5 RdRp. The selected ligands with significant binding energy and ligand-receptor interactions were further processed. Among the selected docked conformations, top five was further optimized at atomic level using molecular dynamic simulations followed by binding free energy calculations. The interactions of ligands with the target structure of ZIKV RdRp revealed that they form strong bonds within the active sites of the receptor molecule. The efficacy of these drugs against ZIKV can be further analyzed through in-vitro and in-vivo studies.     

Finite Element Analysis of the Ballistic Impact on Auxetic Sandwich Composite Human Body Armor

In this study, the ballistic impact behavior of auxetic sandwich composite human body armor was analyzed using finite element analysis. The auxetic core of the armor was composed of discrete re-entrant unit cells. The sandwich armor structure consisted of a front panel of aluminum alloy (Al 7075-T6), UHMWPE (sandwich core), and a back facet of silicon carbide (SiC) bonded together with epoxy resin. Numerical simulations were run on Explicit Dynamics/Autodyne 3-D code. Various projectile velocities with the same boundary conditions were used to predict the auxetic armor response. These results were compared with those of conventional monolithic body armor. The results showed improved indentation resistance with the auxetic armor. Deformation in auxetic armor was observed greater for each of the cases when compared to the monolithic armor, due to higher energy absorption. The elastic energy dissipation results in the lower indentation in an auxetic armor. The armor can be used safely up to 400 m/s; being used at higher velocities significantly reduced the threat level. Conversely, the conventional monolithic modal does not allow the projectile to pass through at a velocity below 300 m/s; however, the back face becomes severely damaged at 200 m/s. At a velocity of 400 m/s, the front facet of auxetic armor was destroyed; however, the back facet was completely safe, while the monolithic panel did not withstand this velocity and was completely damaged. The results are encouraging in terms of resistance offered by the newly adopted auxetic armor compared to conventional monolithic armor.     

Virulence factors profile of drug-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from urinary tract infections in Punjab, Pakistan

Escherichia coli is considered to be the main causative agent of urinary tract infections (UTIs). The primary objective of this study was to investigate the spectrum of five virulence factors among drug-resistant clinical E. coli isolates associated with pyelonephritis and cystitis. A total of 101 samples were positive for E. coli (42 from pyelonephritis cases and 59 from cystitis cases) out of 457 urine samples of patients. Among toxins, haemolysin and secreted autotransporter toxin are found more frequently in isolates causing pyelonephritis (p < 0.020) than cystitis (p < 0.083). The frequent occurrence of P-pili, S-fimbria and protein involved in intestinal colonisation was noted among E. coli isolates associated with pyelonephritis. Overall, the study suggests that clinical isolates associated with pyelonephritis are more virulent than those associated with cystitis and diversified association with various antimicrobial resistance phenotypes was noted.     

Synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial and antitumor screening of some diorganotin(IV) complexes of 2-[(9H-Purin-6-ylimino)]-phenol

A new series of diorganotin(IV) complexes of the type R₂SnL₂ (R = Me, Et, Bu, Ph, Bz and L = 2-[(9H-Purin-6-ylimino)]-phenol) have been synthesized, characterized by elemental analyses and their solid state configuration has been determined by various spectroscopic (IR, ¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn NMR, ^119mSn Mössbauer) techniques. The results obtained on the basis of these techniques are in full concurrence with the proposed 2:1 stoichiometry. The title complexes have been screened against various microorganisms, fungi and human cell line KB, the results obtained showed that the bis(2-[(9H-Purin-6-ylimino)]-phenolate) diphenyltin(IV) complex exhibited excellent activity against all types of bacteria and fungi used, while bis(2-[(9H-Purin-6-ylimino)]-phenolate) diethyltin(IV) complex was found to have promising antitumor activity.     

Nephritis and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease: an unusual association

A 24 years old male, who presented to us with uraemic symptoms secondary to chronic glomerulonephritis. On examination, he was found to have features of peripheral neuropathy which was confirmed as Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1 on nerve conduction studies. Very few cases of glomerular disease, mainly focal segmental glomerulosclerosis have been associated with the Charcot-Marie-Tooth worldwide.     

Watermark Compression in Medical Image Watermarking Using Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) Lossless Compression Technique

In teleradiology, image contents may be altered due to noisy communication channels and hacker manipulation. Medical image data is very sensitive and can not tolerate any illegal change. Illegally changed image-based analysis could result in wrong medical decision. Digital watermarking technique can be used to authenticate images and detect as well as recover illegal changes made to teleradiology images. Watermarking of medical images with heavy payload watermarks causes image perceptual degradation. The image perceptual degradation directly affects medical diagnosis. To maintain the image perceptual and diagnostic qualities standard during watermarking, the watermark should be lossless compressed. This paper focuses on watermarking of ultrasound medical images with Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) lossless-compressed watermarks. The watermark lossless compression reduces watermark payload without data loss. In this research work, watermark is the combination of defined region of interest (ROI) and image watermarking secret key. The performance of the LZW compression technique was compared with other conventional compression methods based on compression ratio. LZW was found better and used for watermark lossless compression in ultrasound medical images watermarking. Tabulated results show the watermark bits reduction, image watermarking with effective tamper detection and lossless recovery.