Search Results (11)

Background: Intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) is increasingly useful for treating intraocular retinoblastoma (Rb). It offers targeted delivery of chemotherapy with reduced systemic exposure. In this study, we evaluate management outcomes and identify predictive factors for globe salvage following IAC in children with Rb. Methods: This retrospective study included 20 eyes of 20 melphalan-based IAC-treated patients (67 sessions) between 2015 and 2023 in a tertiary cancer center (King Hussein Cancer Center) in Jordan. Data collection included patients’ demographics, tumor staging, eye salvage, complications, and survival, followed by statistical comparisons between eye salvage rates and clinical factors. Results: The median age of IAC initiation was 38 months (range: 6–78 months). IAC was used as a primary treatment in 35% (7/20) of eyes and as a secondary treatment following systemic chemotherapy in 65% (13/20) of eyes. Nineteen (95%) eyes showed initial tumor regression, 15 (75%) eyes showed short term tumor control, and long-term eye salvage was achieved in 11 (55%) eyes. Poor prognostic factors for eye salvage included advanced tumor stage (Group D/E: 43% salvage rate vs. Group C: 83%; p = 0.047), vitreous seeding at the time of IAC (38% with seeding vs. 75% without; p = 0.046), use of IAC as a secondary rather than a primary treatment (46% vs. 71%; p = 0.047), and the need for >3 IAC cycles (20% success with >3 cycles vs. 67% with ≤3 cycles; p = 0.034). Complications were notable: systemic adverse effects were seen in five (25%) patients, including neutropenia (20%) and bronchospasm (6%). Procedure-related complications were seen with 22% of injections, including failure of the procedure (7%), ophthalmic artery spasm (6%), and intra-procedural stroke (3%). Five (25%) eyes developed ocular complications, including vitreous hemorrhage (15%), retinal detachment (10%), optic atrophy (10%), and retinal or choroidal ischemia (10%). Notably, all infants under 12 months of age (4/4) developed complications, including the two events of stroke. At a median follow-up of 60 months, eye salvage was achieved in 11 (55%) eyes, and none of the 9 (45%) enucleated eyes showed high-risk pathological features. There was no orbital recurrence, and one (5%) child developed CNS metastasis and passed away. Conclusion: IAC achieves long-term globe salvage in 55% of Rb cases; however, outcomes are poorer with Group D/E tumors, vitreous seeds, prior IVC failure, or requiring >3 IAC cycles. While reducing systemic chemotherapy toxicity, IAC carries significant risks of vision- and life-threatening complications. Infants and single-eyed patients require particularly cautious consideration. Though IAC remains crucial for globe preservation, optimal implementation demands improved patient selection criteria, multicenter collaboration, and long-term outcome studies to maximize safety and efficacy. Full article

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes and predictive factors of I-125 radioactive plaque therapy for recurrent and refractory retinoblastoma (Rb) cases that failed primary systemic chemotherapy and focal therapies. Methods: A retrospective study of 20 eyes with intraocular Rb treated with I-125 radioactive plaque therapy (Apex dose 45 Gy) from 2013 to 2023 was conducted. Data on tumor characteristics, treatments, and outcomes were collected over a follow-up period of at least one year. Results: There were 11 (55%) males and 8 (40%) patients who had bilateral disease. All 20 treated eyes (100%) showed initial tumor regression, while long-term tumor control and eye salvage were achieved in 14 eyes (70%). Six eyes (30%) experienced uncontrollable tumor recurrence after a mean of 6 months (range: 3–12 months) after plaque therapy. Recurrence included main tumor activity in six eyes and additional resistant vitreous seeds in two of them. Poor predictive factors for eye salvage included Group D at diagnosis (p = 0.044), active vitreous seeds at the time of plaque therapy ((p = 0.045), tumor thickness >5.0 mm (p = 0.045), and tumor base dimension >12 mm (p = 0.023). Post-plaque complications included cataracts in seven eyes (35%), tumor hemorrhage in six eyes (30%), retinal detachment in four eyes (20%), radiation retinopathy in three eyes (15%), and neovascular glaucoma in one eye (5%). Five (83%) of those with tumor hemorrhage had plaque surgery performed within less than 6 months of the last cycle of systemic chemotherapy. At a mean follow-up of 36 months (range: 12–96 months), five eyes (25%) were enucleated, and high-risk pathological features were identified in three eyes, including post-laminar optic nerve infiltration (one eye) and massive choroidal invasion (two eyes). All patients were alive and free of metastasis except one patient (5%) whose parents refused enucleation and came back with extra-scleral extension and bone marrow metastasis and eventually passed away. Conclusions: I-125 radioactive plaque therapy is a valuable salvage treatment for recurrent and refractory retinoblastoma, achieving tumor control and eye salvage in 70% of cases with an acceptable safety profile. However, the observed recurrence rate (30%) at an apex dose of 45 Gy suggests a need for dose optimization and individualized treatment strategies. Identifying high-risk features, such as Group D disease, active vitreous seeds, and larger tumors, is crucial for patient selection and outcome prediction. Future research should explore alternative dosing strategies, combination therapies, and improved predictive models to enhance long-term tumor control while minimizing complications. Full article

Background: Thieno[2,3-c]pyridines and their analogs are not well explored for their anticancer properties. Hence, our research aimed to establish the anticancer potential of thieno[2,3-c]pyridines through cell-based assays and in silico evaluations. Methods: Thieno[2,3-c]pyridine derivatives 6(a–k) were synthesized and characterized using FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and HRMS. All the synthesized compounds were screened initially for their anticancer activity against MCF7 and T47D (breast cancer), HSC3 (head and neck cancer), and RKO (colorectal cancer) cell lines using MTT assay. Apoptosis and cell cycle analyses were conducted using Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) double staining for apoptosis assessment and PI staining for cell cycle analysis to investigate the mechanisms underlying the reduced cell viability. In silico molecular docking was accomplished for the synthesized compounds against the Hsp90 and determined pharmacokinetics properties. Results: From the screening assay, compounds 6a and 6i were identified as potential inhibitors and were further subjected to IC₅₀ determination. The compound 6i showed potent inhibition against HSC3 (IC₅₀ = 10.8 µM), T47D (IC₅₀ = 11.7 µM), and RKO (IC₅₀ = 12.4 µM) cell lines, all of which indicated a broad spectrum of anticancer activity. Notably, 6i was found to induce G2 phase arrest, thereby inhibiting cell cycle progression. Molecular docking results indicated crucial molecular interactions of the synthesized ligands against the target Hsp90. Conclusion: The compound 6i induced cell death via mechanisms that are different from apoptosis. Thus, the synthesized thieno[2,3-c]pyridine derivatives can be suitable lead compounds to be optimized to obtain potent anticancer agents through Hsp90 inhibition. Full article

Background: Breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality and morbidity worldwide. Ocular and periocular metastasis present as a rare but clinically significant manifestation. This study aims to explore demographics and clinical aspects of ocular and periocular metastasis in breast cancer patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study comprising 45 breast cancer patients with ocular or periocular metastasis treated between 2013 and 2023. Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, diagnostic methods, treatment modalities, visual outcomes, and survival data were analyzed. Results: Among 9902 breast cancer patients, 0.5% developed ocular or periocular metastasis, constituting 2.4% of metastatic cases. The median age was 50 years. Ocular metastasis timing varied: 5% before breast cancer, 24% concurrent, 22% within a year, and 49% after. The most common presentations included incidental MRI findings (42%) and vision decline (31%). Metastasis involved the orbit (47%), choroid (40%), optic nerve (11%), and iris (2%), with 44% having bilateral involvement. Predictive factors included invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) (p < 0.0001) and brain metastasis (p < 0.0001), with ILC exhibiting a sixfold higher likelihood of ocular metastasis than invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Primary treatment was radiation therapy (89%), yielding a 55% maintenance of excellent vision (<0.5), with 93% developing dry eye disease. Patients with ocular metastasis faced an increased risk of disease-related mortality (p < 0.0001), with 71% succumbing within 10 months post-diagnosis. Conclusions: Ocular metastasis in breast cancer is rare (0.5%) but signifies poor outcome. It is linked to ILC and concurrent brain metastasis. Primary treatment involves radiation therapy, with a favorable visual prognosis. Full article

Background: This study compares the outcomes of managing retinoblastoma between patients with unilateral and bilateral presentations. Methods: The study, conducted at the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman, Jordan, retrospectively analyzed cases of retinoblastoma treated between March 2003 and December 2019. Evaluation criteria included clinical features, disease stage, treatment methods, and overall management outcomes. Results: The study comprised 697 eyes from 478 patients with retinoblastoma, with 52% being males. Bilateral disease was observed in 70% of patients, and a family history of retinoblastoma was more prevalent in cases with bilateral disease (20%) compared to those with unilateral disease (4%). Unilateral cases had a median age at diagnosis of 28 months, whereas bilateral cases were diagnosed at a median age of 6 months. Extra-ocular retinoblastoma was detected in 1% of eyes. According to the International Intraocular Retinoblastoma Classification (IIRC), 88% of unilateral cases presented with advanced disease (IIRC group D/E), compared to 46% in bilateral cases. Primary enucleation was performed in 29% of unilateral cases and 16% of bilateral cases (p-value 0.0007). Eye salvage rates were 31% in unilateral cases and 68% in bilateral cases (p-value < 0.0001). At 120 months of follow-up, 5% of patients died from secondary neoplasms or metastases, 81% were alive, and 14% were lost to follow-up. There was no significant difference in metastasis, secondary neoplasms, or mortality between patients with unilateral and bilateral retinoblastoma. Conclusions: This study highlights the nuanced differences in clinical characteristics and outcomes between unilateral and bilateral retinoblastoma, emphasizing the necessity of customized management and early detection strategies. It demonstrates that while bilateral retinoblastoma benefits from earlier detection and has a higher rate of eye salvage, there is no significant difference in metastasis or mortality rates when compared to unilateral cases. The critical roles of primary enucleation in advanced cases, along with effective communication and patient education, are also underscored to improve treatment adherence. Overall, these findings point to the importance of tailored approaches in optimizing outcomes for the diverse patient population affected by retinoblastoma. Full article

The automation of the manufacturing processes of thermoplastic composite laminates has become dependent on open mold processes such as automated tape placement (ATP), which couples tape layering with in situ consolidation. The manufacturing parameters of ATP open mold processes, which comprise processing time, consolidation pressure and temperature, affect the bond strength between the plies and the quality of the laminates produced. Therefore, the effect of the manufacturing parameters should be characterized. This work experimentally evaluates the feasibility of fabricating thermoplastic laminates using an open mold process that reasonably models that of ATP. Glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene laminates are fabricated from unidirectional tapes under different consolidation periods, pressures, and temperatures. The bond quality in the produced laminates is assessed by measuring their interlaminar shear strength, which is measured using a short beam standardized shear test in conjunction with digital image correlation. Results show that consolidation can occur at temperatures slightly below the composite tapes’ complete melting temperature, and consolidation times between 7 and 13 min can result in acceptable bond strengths. The results confirmed the feasibility of the process and highlighted its limitations. Analysis of variance and machine learning showed that the effect of process parameters on interlaminar shear strength is nonlinear. Full article

Rural–urban immigration, regional wars, refugees, and natural disasters all bring to prominence the importance of studying urban growth. Increased urban growth rates are becoming a global phenomenon creating stress on agricultural land, spreading pollution, accelerating global warming, and increasing water run-off, which adds exponentially to pressure on natural resources and impacts climate change. Based on the integration of machine learning (ML) and geographic information system (GIS), we employed a framework to delineate future urban boundaries for future expansion and urban agglomerations. We developed it based on a Time Delay Neural Network (TDNN) that depends on equal time intervals of urban growth. Such an approach is used for the first time in urban growth as a predictive tool and is coupled with Land Suitability Analysis, which incorporates both qualitative and quantitative data to propose evaluated urban growth in the Greater Irbid Municipality, Jordan. The results show the recommended future spatial expansion and proposed results for the year 2025. The results show that urban growth is more prevalent in the eastern, northern, and southern areas and less in the west. The urban growth boundary map illustrates that the continuation of urban growth in these areas will slowly further encroach upon and diminish agricultural land. By means of suitability analysis, the results showed that 51% of the region is unsuitable for growth, 43% is moderately suitable and only 6% is suitable for growth. Based on TDNN methodology, which is an ML framework that is dependent on the growth of urban boundaries, we can track and predict the trend of urban spatial expansion and thus develop policies for protecting ecological and agricultural lands and optimizing and directing urban growth. Full article

Herbal treatment for diabetes mellitus is widely used. The pharmacological activity is thought to be due to the phenolic compounds found in the plant leaves. The present study aims to investigate the phytochemical composition of Urtica dioica (UD) hydroethanolic extract and to screen its antidiabetic activity by disaccharidase hindering and glucose transport in Caco-2 cells. The results have shown that a total of 13 phenolic compounds in this work, viz. caffeic and coumaric acid esters (1, 2, 4–7, 10), ferulic derivative (3), and flavonoid glycosides (8, 9, 11–13), were identified using HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS². The most abundant phenolic compounds were 8 (rutin) followed by 6 (caffeoylquinic acid III). Less predominant compounds were 4 (caffeoylquinic acid II) and 11 (kaempferol-O-rutinoside). The UD hydroethanolic extract showed 56%, 45%, and 28% (1.0 mg/mL) inhibition level for maltase, sucrase, and lactase, respectively. On the other hand, glucose transport was 1.48 times less at 1.0 mg/mL UD extract compared with the control containing no UD extract. The results confirmed that U. dioica is a potential antidiabetic herb having both anti-disaccharidase and glucose transport inhibitory properties, which explained the use of UD in traditional medicine. Full article

Conventionally, aerial manipulators, when used for inspection, use drone rotors to stabilize the center of gravity (CoG) shifts, which highly affects its performance. This paper discusses the development of a self-balancing lightweight cable aerial manipulator that can be used for construction inspection purposes. The design is based on a 3D-printed, three degrees of freedom (DoF), planar cable manipulator that is mounted on an extended platform below it as a counter-balance mechanism. The actuators control the manipulator links through a cable system, allowing them to be mounted at the system base to reduce the moving mass of the manipulator during operation. The counter-balance mechanism compensates for any shifts in the CoG of the system by actively sliding a counter-balance weight, mainly a battery, which powers the setup. This mechanism can be attached beneath an off-the-shelf quadrotor to solve the problem of CoG shifts. CoG shifts are due to the manipulator operation when a payload or inspection tool is attached to the end effector to perform a given task. For construction integrity inspection, the aerial manipulator must remain stable during the push or slide processes on both flat and curved surfaces while the non-destructive tests are carried out. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed design, an experimental setup was used, and comparisons were made between the compensated and uncompensated tilt angles of the aerial manipulator. Significant tilt angle reductions were observed with an average of 94.69% improvement, undergoing different manipulator motions during different operation scenarios, as a result of an active compensation of the CoG shift and lightweight design of the system, without sacrificing the functionality of the manipulator for the task. Full article

A conductometric immunosensor was developed for the detection of one of the most common foodborne pathogens, Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7), by conductometric sensing. The sensor was built based on a polyaniline/zinc oxide (PANI/ZnO) nanocomposite film spin-coated on a gold electrode. Then, it was modified with a monoclonal anti-E. coli O157:H7 antibody as a biorecognition element. The fabricated nanostructured sensor was able to quantify the pathogens under optimal detection conditions, within 30 min, and showed a good detection range from 10¹ to 10⁴ CFU/mL for E. coli O157:H7 and a minimum detection limit of 4.8 CFU/mL in 0.1% peptone water. The sensor efficiency for detecting bacteria in food matrices was tested in ultra-heat-treated (UHT) skim milk. E. coli O157:H7 was detected at concentrations of 10¹ to 10⁴ CFU/mL with a minimum detection limit of 13.9 CFU/mL. The novel sensor was simple, fast, highly sensitive with excellent specificity, and it had the potential for rapid sample processing. Moreover, this unique technique for bacterial detection could be applicable for food safety and quality control in the food sector as it offers highly reliable results and is able to quantify the target bacterium. Full article

Autonomous vehicles (AV) are expected to improve, reshape, and revolutionize the future of ground transportation. It is anticipated that ordinary vehicles will one day be replaced with smart vehicles that are able to make decisions and perform driving tasks on their own. In order to achieve this objective, self-driving vehicles are equipped with sensors that are used to sense and perceive both their surroundings and the faraway environment, using further advances in communication technologies, such as 5G. In the meantime, local perception, as with human beings, will continue to be an effective means for controlling the vehicle at short range. In the other hand, extended perception allows for anticipation of distant events and produces smarter behavior to guide the vehicle to its destination while respecting a set of criteria (safety, energy management, traffic optimization, comfort). In spite of the remarkable advancements of sensor technologies in terms of their effectiveness and applicability for AV systems in recent years, sensors can still fail because of noise, ambient conditions, or manufacturing defects, among other factors; hence, it is not advisable to rely on a single sensor for any of the autonomous driving tasks. The practical solution is to incorporate multiple competitive and complementary sensors that work synergistically to overcome their individual shortcomings. This article provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art methods utilized to improve the performance of AV systems in short-range or local vehicle environments. Specifically, it focuses on recent studies that use deep learning sensor fusion algorithms for perception, localization, and mapping. The article concludes by highlighting some of the current trends and possible future research directions. Full article