QScience Connect - الأعداد السابقة

Distal phalangeal osteomyelitis of the thumb occurs rarely. Bilateral affection of the distal phalanges has not been described in the literature so far. Here, we present a case study of a patient who was successfully treated for distal phalangeal osteomyelitis of bilateral thumbs. A 65-year-old woman presented with bilateral thumb pain and swelling. She had dyschromic changes in the right nail and onychodystrophic changes in the left nail. On inquiry, she gave a history of applying nail enamel only to both thumbs for several years. Radiography of both the thumbs showed changes suggestive of osteomyelitis of the distal phalanges. She was treated successfully with debridement and sequestrectomy. Culture from necrotic tissue yielded polymicrobial flora. Onychodystrophy is relatively common and occurs secondary to infective as well as non-infective disorders of nails. Compulsive nail biting (onychophagia), nail picking, and allergic and irritant contact dermatitis secondary to cosmetic agents and household detergents are common predisposing factors. A high degree of suspicion of infective nail bed can aid in the early treatment of such cases with favorable outcome.

Quality of higher education is often assumed to be linked to the size of the faculty. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis whether Bachelor's theses in ecology at a large, old research university would have more connection to theory than those at a small, young university college. The results revealed no significant difference between the universities. One potential explanation for these results is that theory is more likely to depend on the individual supervisor who may demand a clear connection to theory in Bachelor's theses. However, in the group of theses categorized as without a clear connection to theory, there were significant differences between the two universities regarding whether students were testing/developing a method or performing a case study. At the large, well-equipped research university, Bachelor's theses were significantly more likely to be based on developing/testing methods, while those at the university college more often comprised inexpensive case studies. Further studies including more universities of contrasting sizes, across countries and disciplines, are required to test the general validity of the findings.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a resourceful technology that offers a large selection of solutions that are readily adaptable to tissue engineering of artificial heart valves (HVs). Different deposition techniques could be used to produce complex architectures, such as the three-layered architecture of leaflets. Once the assembly is complete, the growth of cells in the scaffold would enable the deposition of cell-specific extracellular matrix proteins. 3D printing technology is a rapidly evolving field that first needs to be understood and then explored by tissue engineers, so that it could be used to create efficient scaffolds. On the other hand, to print the HV scaffold, a basic understanding of the fundamental structural and mechanical aspects of the HV should be gained. This review is focused on alginate that can be used as a building material due to its unique properties confirmed by the successful application of alginate-based biomaterials for the treatment of myocardial infarction in humans. Within the field of biomedicine, there is a broad scope for the application of alginate including wound healing, cell transplantation, delivery of bioactive agents, such as chemical drugs and proteins, heat burns, acid reflux, and weight control applications. The non-thrombogenic nature of this polymer has made it an attractive candidate for cardiac applications, including scaffold fabrication for heart valve tissue engineering (HVTE). The next essential property of alginate is its ability to form films, fibers, beads, and virtually any shape in a variety of sizes. Moreover, alginate possesses several prime properties that make it suitable for use in free-form fabrication techniques. The first property is its ability, when dissolved, to increase the viscosity of aqueous solutions, which is particularly important in formulating extrudable mixtures for 3D printing. The second property is its ability to form gels in mild conditions, for example, by adding calcium salt to an aqueous solution of alginate. The latter property is a basis for reactive extrusion- and inkjet printing-based solid free-form fabrication. Both techniques enable the production of scaffolds for cell encapsulation, which increases the seeding efficiency of fabricated structures. The objective of this article is to review methods for the fabrication of alginate hydrogels in the context of HVTE.

Human body, other animate beings, plants, and organizations are all dynamic and systemic entities. The similarity between living organisms and organizations, especially considering highly evolved organisms such as the human body, is noteworthy. Therefore, whenever an organization fails to accomplish its function and mission, an organizational symptom or disease may be envisaged to have come up; as a result, a variety of organizational symptoms and diseases can be considered. Recent studies have attempted to find analogies between the human body system and a social system such as an organization, to find analogous malfunctions and ailments, in order to enable the introduction of guidelines for the diagnosis of organizational symptoms and diseases, and their remedies and treatments. This paper deals with the concepts of biological metaphor and analogy, which have been present in organizational management for several decades. It attempts to study some subsystems of the human body analogous to the organizational subsystems, and their correspondingly analogous symptoms and diseases. Thus, some treatments and remedies are proposed accordingly, hoping to pave the way for further organizational management research within the development of clinical organizational pathology, based on the concepts of biological metaphor and analogy.