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Introduction: Lipopolysaccharide is a bacterial endotoxin that induces acute lung injury in experimental animals, which is similar to acute respiratory distress syndrome in humans. The induced tissue trauma ends in fibrosis. Understanding the pathogenesis is important in the prevention and treatment of the complications. This study was assigned to investigate the long-term lipopolysaccharide-induced lung injury and the postulated protective effect of ascorbic acid on these changes. Materials and methods: Twenty-four adult male albino rats were divided into three groups. Group I was the controls, group II received lipopolysaccharide and group III received lipopolysaccharide and ascorbic acid. After 30 days of starting treatment, lung tissue samples were obtained. Results: Group II lung tissues showed marked thickening of the alveolar septa with collapsed alveolar sacs, detached bronchial epithelium, inflammatory cell infiltration and excessive deposition of collagen. Group III showed mild thickening of the alveolar walls, scanty inflammatory cell infiltration, mild parabronchial fibrosis and less marked collagen deposition. α-Smooth muscle actin staining of group II showed marked expression of the actin-positive cells. Less potential expression of the dye was found in group III. Ultrastructural examination of group II showed evident structural changes in pneumocytes with capillary basement membrane irregularity and interruption compared to uniform basement membrane in group III with less prominent intracellular changes in pneumocytes. Conclusion: Ascorbic acid attenuated the inflammatory response and fibrosis in the lungs of rats treated with lipopolysaccharide as evidenced by the histological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies.

Background: Management of patients with locally advanced rectal carcinoma (LARC) is different than early stage rectal carcinoma, as only surgical management of this cancer is related to higher incidence of cancer recurrence, whether distant or local recurrence. Using SCRT in addition to immediate surgery is another valid management option. But there are still some patients too frail for chemo-radiation and promising results were found with the strategy of using radiotherapy followed by delayed surgery performance for a better management of LARC patients. Aim of the present report was to assess the feasibility, toxicity, short and long term outcome in addition to assessing the ability to produce pathological complete response to therapy of using a SCRT and SCRT followed by delayed surgical resection, in patients with a middle and/or low LARC. Patients and methods: we prospectively assessed 60 patients who were diagnosed with middle and/or low LACR we divided them into; 35 patients underwent SCRT only and 25 patients underwent SCRT followed by delayed surgical resection (SCRT-DS group). We compare between both included groups regarding; short term, long term, surgical and survival outcomes. Results: All included patients showed disappearance of cancer-related hemorrhage. Cancerrelated pelvic pain disappearance happened in 80% of patients. In patients who underwent SCRT alone; complete pathologic respons e was reported in 15% of patients, partial response was reported in 15% of patients and no response was reported in 70% of patients. In patients who underwent SCRT-DS complete pathologic response was reported in 30% of patients, partial response was reported in 40% of patients and no response was reported in 30% of patients. All the patients have R0 resection margin. In all included patients down-staging of cancer occurred 78.9% of patients without statistically significant differences between both included groups of patients. Median OS rate and DFS rate were better in the SCRT-DS group than in SCRT group (p=0.049 and 0.036 respectively). Conclusions: we demonstrated that using SCRT followed by a delayed surgery in patients with a low/middle LARC which were considered "unfit" for LCRT is a feasible and safe management strategy regarding both surgical and oncologic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the rapid advancement in the use of photovoltaic (PV) energy systems, it has become critical to look for ways to improve the energy generated by them. The extracted power from the PV modules is proportional to the output voltage. The relationship between output power and array voltage has only one peak under uniform irradiance, whereas it has multiple peaks under partial shade conditions (PSCs). There is only one global peak (GP) and many local peaks (LPs), where the typical maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) may become locked in one of the LPs, significantly reducing the PV system's generated power and efficiency. The metaheuristic optimization algorithms (MOAs) solved this problem, albeit at the expense of the convergence time, which is one of these algorithms' key shortcomings. Most MOAs attempt to lower the convergence time at the cost of the failure rate and the accuracy of the findings because these two factors are interdependent. To address these issues, this work introduces the dandelion optimization algorithm (DOA), a novel optimization algorithm. The DOA's convergence time and failure rate are compared to other modern MOAs in critical scenarios of partial shade PV systems to demonstrate the DOA's superiority. The results obtained from this study showed substantial performance improvement compared to other MOAs, where the convergence time was reduced to 0.4 s with zero failure rate compared to 0.9 s, 1.25 s, and 0.43 s for other MOAs under study. The optimal number of search agents in the swarm, the best initialization of search agents, and the optimal design of the dc–dc converter are introduced for optimal MPPT performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full thickness cartilage defects in cases of knee osteoarthritis are challenging in nature and are difficult to treat. The implantation of three-dimensional (3D) biofabricated grafts into the defect site can be a promising biological one-stage solution for such lesions that can avoid different disadvantages of the alternative surgical treatment options. In this study, the short-term clinical outcome of a novel surgical technique that uses a 3D bioprinted micronized adipose tissue (MAT) graft for knee cartilage defects is assessed and the degree of incorporation of such graft types is evaluated via arthroscopic and radiological analyses. Ten patients received 3D bioprinted grafts consisting of MAT with an allogenic hyaline cartilage matrix on a mold of polycaprolactone, with or without adjunct high tibial osteotomy, and they were monitored until 12 months postoperatively. Clinical outcomes were examined with patient-reported scoring instruments that consisted of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) score and the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS). The graft incorporation was assessed using the Magnetic Resonance Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue (MOCART) score. At 12 months follow-up, cartilage tissue biopsy samples were taken from patients and underwent histopathological examination. In the results, at final follow-up, the WOMAC and KOOS scores were 22.39 ± 7.7 and 79.16 ± 5.49, respectively. All scores were significantly increased at final follow-up (p < 0.0001). MOCART scores were also improved to a mean of 82.85 ± 11.49, 12 months after operation, and we observed a complete incorporation of the grafts with the surrounding cartilage. Together, this study suggests a novel regeneration technique for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis patients, with less rejection response and better efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]