Surface Chemistry and Specific Surface Area Rule the Efficiency of Gold Nanoparticle Sensitizers in Proton Therapy.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are currently the most studied radiosensitizers in proton therapy (PT) applicable for the treatment of solid tumors, where they amplify production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, it is underexplored how this amplification is correlated with the AuNPs' surface chemistry. To clarify this issue, we fabricated ligand-free AuNPs of different mean diameters by laser ablation in liquids (LAL) and laser fragmentation in liquids (LFL) and irradiated them with clinically relevant proton fields by using water phantoms. ROS generation was monitored by the fluorescent dye 7-OH-coumarin. Our findings reveal an enhancement of ROS production driven by I) increased total particle surface area, II) utilization of ligand-free AuNPs avoiding sodium citrate as a radical quencher ligands, and III) a higher density of structural defects generated by LFL synthesis, indicated by surface charge density. Based on these findings it may be concluded that the surface chemistry is a major and underexplored contributor to ROS generation and sensitizing effects of AuNPs in PT. We further highlight the applicability of AuNPs in vitro in human medulloblastoma cells.

A Case of Nasopharyngeal Myiasis Caused by Sarcophaga sp

Myiasis is a parasitic infestation of tissues and body cavities of vertebrates by Diptera larvae. Nasal myiasis is mostly caused by the Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae families. Many predisposing factors play a role in the appearance of nasal myiasis. In the treatment of the disease, the use of antiseptics together with mechanical cleaning is recommended. In this report, a case of nasopharyngeal myiasis in a 75-year-old patient hospitalized in the intensive care unit is presented. Nine larvae were detected in the patient's nose. Larvae were removed from the area and were cleaned with iodine solution for three days. As a result of macroscopic and microscopic examination, the larvae were identified as the third stage of Sarcophaga sp. in order to prevent myiasis infestations, personnel working in places where the patient is unconscious, such as intensive care units, should daily check the patient's body cavities such as nose, mouth and ear cavities, and perform their care and cleaning.

Culture and culture-independent diagnostic tests in Campylobacter enteritis.

INTRODUCTION: Campylobacter infections are among the most common causes of bacterial enteritis. This study aims to determine the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values (PPV) of culture and culture-independent tests for the diagnosis of Campylobacter enteritis. METHODOLOGY: A total of 400 stool samples were included in the study. BD MAX enteric bacterial panel (BD Diagnostics, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) and EntericBio Gastro Panel II (Serosep, Limerick, Ireland) were used as commercial molecular tests. RIDA®QUICK Campylobacter (R-Biopharm, Darmstadt,, Germany) and CerTest (Biotec, Zaragoza, Spain) were used to detect Campylobacter antigens. Samples were cultured in CCDA media and subjected to bacterial identification by mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Among the 400 specimens, 41 (10.2%) were evaluated as Campylobacter positive; 21 were culture-positive and 20 were detected as positive by both PCR methods. Of the 21 isolates grown in culture, 16 (76.2%) were identified as C. jejuni and 5 (23.8%) as C. coli. While all 21 culture-positive specimens were detected as positive by both molecular tests, 18 of the specimens were found positive by RidaQuick, and 16 by Certest ICA. Of the 20 culture-negative Campylobacter cases, 18 were positive by RidaQuick and 12 by Certest ICA. Sensitivities of culture, ICA-RidaQuick and ICA-CerTest were 51.2%, 87.8 and 68.3, respectively. The specificities of all tests were in the range of 90-100 %. PPV of molecular tests, ICA-RidaQuick and ICA-CerTest were > 95%, 72 % and 48.3 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Molecular tests were superior to culture and ICA in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value.

Retrospective Analysis of the Distribution of Intestinal Parasites in Patients Admitted to Dicle University Faculty of Medicine Between the Years 2011-2020

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine and evaluate retrospectively the distribution of intestinal parasites detected in patients who applied to Dicle University Medical Faculty Parasitology Laboratory between 2011-2020. Methods: Stool samples sent to the parasitology laboratory for parasite examination were examined by the native-Lugol method and the samples sent with cellophane tape were examined microscopically for parasite examination. In addition, modified acidfast and trichrome staining methods were used to identify protozoan. Results: Parasites were detected in 5.99% of 60.501 stool samples sent to the parasitology laboratory. Blastocystis spp. (57.62%) was detected with the highest rate among positive samples, followed by 31.93% Giardia intestinalis, 3.75% Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, 2.37% Hymenolepis nana, 1.57% Fasciola spp., 0.91% Taenia saginata, 0.72% Enterobius vermicularis, 0.52% Cryptosporidium spp., 0.42% Cyclospora cayetanensis, 0.19 Ascaris lumbricoides were detected. Conclusion: Although the incidence of intestinal parasite infections in our study decreased over a ten-year period, it continues to maintain its importance. Therefore, to reduce the prevalence of intestinal parasites; It is important to safeguarding clean water resources, solve infrastructure problems, and inform the public about sanitation rules.

Hashing with Mutual Information.

Binary vector embeddings enable fast nearest neighbor retrieval in large databases of high-dimensional objects, and play an important role in many practical applications, such as image and video retrieval. We study the problem of learning binary vector embeddings under a supervised setting, also known as hashing. We propose a novel supervised hashing method based on optimizing an information-theoretic quantity, mutual information. We show that optimizing mutual information can reduce ambiguity in the induced neighborhood structure in the learned Hamming space, which is essential in obtaining high retrieval performance. To this end, we optimize mutual information in deep neural networks with minibatch stochastic gradient descent, with a formulation that maximally and efficiently utilizes available supervision. Experiments on four image retrieval benchmarks, including ImageNet, confirm the effectiveness of our method in learning high-quality binary embeddings for nearest neighbor retrieval.

Determination the Subtypes of Blastocystis sp. and Evaluate the Effect of These Subtypes on Pathogenicity.

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to determine the frequency of subtypes of Blastocystis sp. in the immunosuppressed individuals, in patients with chronic urticaria, and in patients with GIS complaints to investigate the difference of Blastocystis sp. subtype distribution between patient and control groups. METHODS: A total of 345 stool samples were collected from the patients and samples were studied by native-Lugol, trichrome staining, and Jones medium culture method. Positively detected samples were subjected to PCR to determine the subtypes. RESULTS: This is the first study of nine subtypes of Blastocystis sp. investigated in our country and the most frequently found subtype was ST3, and then, the other subtypes were ST1, ST2, ST5, and ST6, respectively. Mix subtype was detected in the 11.6% and no subtype was detected in the 17.4% of the samples. The ST5 was detected first time in the control group and ST6, which is reported limitedly in our country, was found in patients with GIS complaints. ST1 and ST2 were found higher in the patient group. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed that the subtype (ST) differences are an important factor affecting the pathogenesis of Blastocystis sp.

Do rhomboid flaps provide more elongation than Z-plasty flaps? An experimental study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A Z-plasty flap is one of the most widely used geometric relaxation methods to release contracture bands. A rhomboid flap is a lesser used geometric relaxation method than a Z-plasty flap. This study aimed to determine the length and rate of elongation provided by rhomboid and Z-plasty flaps. METHODS: Bilateral contracture bands were created in the inguinal skins of rats. A rhomboid flap was planned for the right side of the inguinal region, and a single Z-plasty flap was planned for the left side. The length and rate of elongation provided by the two flaps were calculated after completing the procedures and were compared using Student's t-test. RESULTS: Experimental contracture bands disappeared in both the inguinal regions after creating rhomboid and Z-plasty flaps. The mean postoperative elongation of the contracture band was 1.4 ± 0.119 and 2.47 ± 0.281 cm using the rhomboid and Z-plasty flaps, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p < .001). CONCLUSION: Z-plasty flaps provide more elongation than rhomboid flaps and also appear to be better options for releasing linear contracture bands. However, rhomboid flaps may be used as alternatives when Z-plasty flaps cannot be used and in regions such as the axilla, genital region, nipple-areola, where their distortion effects should be avoided.