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Mandana Behbahani,1,2 Nathan Shlobin,1,2 Colleen Rosen,1 Elizabeth Yerkes,3,4 Vineeta Swaroop,5,6 Sandi Lam,1,2 Robin Bowman1,2 1Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; 2Department of Neurosurgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA; 3Division of Pediatric Urology, Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; 4Department of Urology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA; 5Division of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; 6Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USACorrespondence: Robin BowmanDivision of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Director of Spina Bifida Program, Lurie Children’s Hospital, 225 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611, USATel +1 312 227 4220Fax +1 312 227 9679Email rbowman@luriechildrens.orgIntroduction: Multidisciplinary care for patients with tethered spinal cord syndrome (TCS) is valuable in ensuring comprehensive evaluation, timely follow-up, optimal functional outcome, and patient-centered care. The family-centered focus aims to minimize patient and parental burdens associated with care coordination. We present our first-year institutional experience in operationalizing a multidisciplinary, patient-centered, pediatric tethered cord clinic (TCC) to manage routine, long-term surgical follow-up for children with non-myelomeningocele-related tethered spinal cords.Methods: TCC is composed of three surgical services: orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, urology. A retrospective chart review of patients seen in the TCC from January 2019 to January 2020 was conducted. Patients enrolled in the clinic were intended for long-term follow-up. Demographic and outcome variables were collected.Results: Fifty-nine patients were seen in TCC. Types of tethered spinal cords amongst these patients were the following: fatty filum (62.7%), dermal sinus tract (15.2%), meningocele manqué (8.4%), lipomyelomeningocele (6.7%), low lying conus medullaris (5.1%), and sacral arachnoid cyst (1.7%). Age at diagnosis was 1.31 ± 2.21 (median: 0.25 years) and at follow-up was 9.0 ± 5.18 years (median: 8 years). A total of 50.9% of patients were female, and 93.2% had a prior untethering procedure. Of all patients, 6.8% have no surgical intervention and continue to be monitored conservatively for evidence of decline. All three services evaluated 84.8% of patients during the same clinic session, while 15.3% of patients were seen by two of the services, and 20.3% of patients were able to schedule related imaging or diagnostic testing during the same visit.Conclusion: We describe successful implementation of a multidisciplinary pediatric TCC and document the first year of experience. The TCC streamlines care, decreases burden on families, and reduces those lost to follow-up. Complex disease pathologies, even when clinically stable, require long-term follow-up with multiple subspecialties and benefit from multidisciplinary clinics.Keywords: neural tube defect, tethered cord, pediatric spine, neurogenic bladder, multidisciplinary care, ambulatory efficiency

Objective(s): To determine the microbiological quality of water used in Tehran food industries. Methods: 50 food factories were randomly selected. Free residual chlorine (as an indicator of effective disinfections), Total and Thermotolearant Coliforms (as indicators of contamination) were the main parameters measured in up to 300 water samples taken from water supply systems. The examination of water was performed according to the standard methods described by the American Public Health Association (APHA). Results: The result indicated that 94% of factories had private water supply systems. 92% were used underground water resources. Only 36% of factories disinfected water before use; in most samples, concentrantions of free residual cholrine were not in the optimal range. 47.7% and 10.4% of sample were contaminated; with mean total coliform 3 per 10 ml and mean thermotolearant colifirms counts of 8.6/l00 ml respectively. Conclusion: In general, the management of water quality control (specially microbiological aspect) in Tehran food industries is poor and there is a real need for improvement.

Stall recovery process for performance enhancement of an axial compressor has been experimentally carried out using air injection at its rotor blade row tip region. Twelve air injectors had been mounted evenly spaced around the compressor casing upstream the rotor blade row. Instantaneous flow velocities at various radial and circumferential positions were measured simultaneously utilizing hot wire anemometry. These unsteady results, separately presented in frequency and time domains, provided to distinguish stall inception process and consequent flow induced fluctuations. Time-dependent responses of the flow field properties within the compressor passage and progressive alleviation of stall cells are demonstrated during the tip injection process. Blade tip air injection worked effectively and enhanced the compressor stall margin about 9%. This attractive result occurred for the case where the total mass flow rate passing through the air injectors was as small as 0.8% of the compressor main flow rate. In addition, this augmentation in the stall margin was accompanied by increase in the compressor delivery total pressure. Air injection at the blade row tip region caused its beneficial effects to extend throughout the blade whole span, especially while working at the near-stall conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously, we reported that the kaempferol and kaempferol-7-O-glucoside isolated from Securigera securidaca showed potent anti-HSV activity. In the present study the anti-HIV-1 activities of kaempferol and kaempferol-7-O-glucoside are investigated at different concentrations (100, 50, 25 and 10 μg/ml) using HIV- 1 p24 Antigen kit. Real-time Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was also used for quantification of full range of virus load observed in treated and untreated cells. According to the results of RT- PCR, tested compounds at a concentration of 100 μg/ml exerted potent inhibitory effect. Time of drug addition experiments demonstrated that these compounds exerted their inhibitory effects on the early stage of HIV infection. The results also showed potent anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activity. Antiviral activity of kaempferol-7-O-glucoside was more pronounced than that of kaempferol. These findings demonstrate that kaempferol-7-O-glucoside could be considered as a new potential drug candidate for the treatment of HIV infection which requires further assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was carried out to investigate cytotoxic activity of flower, leaf, stem and root extracts of five Artemisia species against breast cancer cell line (MCF7) and human embryonic kidney normal cell line (HEK293). The studied Artemisia species were A. absinthium, A. vulgaris, A. incana, A. fragrans and A. spicigera. The cytotoxic activity was measured by MTT assay at different concentrations (62.5, 125, 250, 500 μg/ml). Among these five species, methanol extracts of flower, leaf, stem and root of A. absinthium and A. vulgaris exhibited considerable cytotoxic activity. The flower extracts of these two species were found to have higher cytotoxic effect on MCF7 cell with an IC50 value of 221.5 and >500 μg/ml, respectively. Leaf methanol extract of A. incana also showed cytotoxic activity. Cytotoxic activity of different extracts of A. absinthium, A. vulgaris and A. incana against MCF7 was 10%-40% more than HEK293 cells. Not only the extracts of A. spicigera andA. fragrans did not show any cytotoxic effect against both cell lines, but also increased the number of cells. This study revealed that A. absinthium and A. vulgaris may have a great potential to explore new anticancer drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, WO3/glass thin films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at 100mTorr oxygen pressure and substrate temperatures of 25, 100, 200, 300 and 400°C for gasochromic investigations. In the presence of H2, a wet-gasochromic switching with an edge-to-center coloring nature was observed when aqueous PdCl2 was used as hydrogen catalyst. A correlation between substrate temperature, hydrophilicity, palladium growth and gasochromic coloring of tungsten oxide films was observed and analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and water contact angle measurement. Results showed that the samples made at 200°C have the best gasochromic properties; coloring rate and deepness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] This is the first baseline for strontium and 90Sr from northern Gulf. [•] The total strontium concentration is much higher than reported for other oceans. [•] The Sr/salinity ratio correlates well with global averages. [•] High Sr might be due to increased salinity/CaCo3 dissolution in acidifying Gulf waters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Plant regeneration in Eustoma grandiflorum, an ornamental plant, was achieved through in vitro culture. For direct organogenesis axillaries buds were transferred to a MS and B5 medium containing different concentration GA3 and BAP. The results show, that B5 medium supplemented with 1 mg/l GA3 +1 mg/l BAP was most effective. As result has shown rootlets formation occurred in the treatment using B5 medium with 1.5 mg/l NAA. The plantlets acclimatized and transferred to soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]