The properties of TiO2 within rolled-up nanotechnology are explored. Micromotors and optical microresonators are presented as possible applications.

It is generally believed that infants are more susceptible to development of renal scarring after pyelonephritis than children over 5 years old. This view has led to differences in investigations and treatment according to age. The aim of this prospective study was to assess the occurrence of renal parenchymal lesion in children over 5 years admitted with a first-time symptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI). Between October 2000 and April 2002, 52 children aged over 5 years who were admitted to our department with probable acute pyelonephritis (APN) and a positive urine culture were included in this study. All children received antibiotics for 14 days. During the acute phase of infection, scintigraphy with technetium-99m-labeled dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) and ultrasonography (US) were done. Voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) was performed in all children early in the course of the illness, generally within 5-7 days of hospitalization. When scintigraphy showed renal parenchymal changes, repeat scintigraphy was done after at least 3 months to assess the progression of renal abnormalities. Of the 52 children with a first-time documented pyelonephritis, cortical scintigraphy showed renal lesion in 41 children (78.8%). US was normal in all children with normal renal scintigraphy, while it detected renal abnormalities in 16 of the 41 (39 %) with abnormal scintigraphy (p <0.0001). Topographic analysis of the 165 focal lesions showed that 42.4% were localized to the upper poles, 17.5% to the middle third, and 40% to the lower poles of the kidneys. Repeat scintigraphy showed persistent lesions corresponding to those on the initial scan in nine (28.2%) of the 32 children. Renal lesions had partly regressed in 23 (71.8%) of the patients who underwent repeat scintigraphy. Vesicoureteral reflux was observed in 13.4% of kidneys and renal parenchymal abnormalities were identified in 71.4% and 72.2% of renal units, respectively, with and without reflux ( p >0.05). In conclusion, our data did not confirm the conventional opinion that the risk of renal scarring after pyelonephritis is low in children over the age of 5 years. Our findings suggest that renal scintigraphy may be a more appropriate method of investigation than VCUG for evaluation of the children over 5 years with acute pyelonephritis. Additionally, the frequency of scintigraphic changes is high, and a strategy based exclusively on ultrasound findings would miss about 61% of the abnormal renal units. We recommend that all children, irrespective of age, will benefit from further investigations that might prevent or limit the development of scarring process and renal complications.

Glomerular disease constitutes an important part of renal disease. The purpose of this study was to describe and correlate the types of glomerular diseases reported in native kidney biopsy specimens and their clinical presentations in Iranian children. The medical records and pathological diagnoses of patients with glomerular disease whose native kidney biopsy specimens were received by our hospital during a 10-year period were reviewed. In each patient, pathological diagnosis, clinical presentation, age at onset of disease, gender, and presence of nephrotic proteinuria, hematuria, and hypertension, were determined. Minimal-change disease was the most frequent glomerular disease and nephrotic syndrome was the most frequent clinical presentation encountered. For each disease, correlations between the clinical presentation and pathological diagnosis were made. This study describes various glomerular diseases encountered in Iranian children, with their respective clinical presentations.

Received Month X, XXXX; revised Month X, XXXX; accepted Month X, XXXX; posted Month X, XXXX (Doc. ID XXXXX); published Month X, XXXX We demonstrate full integration of vertical optical ring resonators with silicon nanophotonic waveguides on silicon-on-insulator substrates to accomplish a significant step towards 3D photonic integration. The on-chip integration is realized by rolling up 2D differentially strained TiO2 nanomembranes into 3D microtube cavities on a nanophotonic microchip. The integration configuration allows for out of plane optical coupling between the in-plane nanowaveguides and the vertical microtube cavities as a compact and mechanically stable optical unit, which could enable refined vertical light transfer in 3D stacks of multiple photonic layers. In this vertical transmission scheme, resonant filtering of optical signals at telecommunication wavelengths is demonstrated based on subwavelength thick walled microcavities. Moreover, an array of microtube cavities is prepared and each microtube cavity is integrated with multiple waveguides which opens up interesting perspectives towards parallel and multi-routing through a single cavity device as well as high-throughput optofluidic sensing schemes.

No abstract

This study aimed to carry out a malaria situation analysis, species composition and susceptibility levels of the main malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi, to different insecticides in Bashagard. A longitudinal survey was conducted in 2 randomly selected villages in Bashagard. Malaria vectors were sampled by dipping method for the larvae and hand catch, night-biting catch, total catch, and shelter pit collection for the adults. Standard WHO susceptibility tests were used for a variety of insecticides on F1 progeny of An. stephensi reared from wild-caught females. In total, 693 adult anopheline mosquitoes and 839 third and fourth-instar larvae were collected and identified. They comprised 7 species; the most abundant adult and larvae anopheline mosquito was An. dthali (40.7% and 30.5% respectively). An. culicifacies (24.2%) and An. stephensi (16.7%) were the next most common species for adult mosquitoes. An. stephensi was fully susceptible to malathion and pyrethroid insecticides but resistant to DDT and tolerant to dieldrin.

Our results identify that the sensitivity of serum CysC for detecting AKI is higher than that of serum Cr in a heterogeneous pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) population.

Urolithiasis is relatively common in children, and identifiable predisposing factors for stone formation, including metabolic and structural derangements, can be established in most cases. Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is a common cause of kidney stone formation. The pathophysiological mechanism of urolithiasis in reflux is related to urinary tract infection and urinary stasis, both of which promote urinary crystal formation, but metabolic causes, such as crystallurias (mostly hypercalciuria), may also be involved in this process. However, few studies on urinary calcium and uric acid excretion in children with VUR have been conducted. We have studied the frequency of hypercalciuria and hyperuricosuria in children with VUR and compared the results with those from a control group. The VUR group comprised 108 children with VUR (19 boys, 89 girls; age range 3 months to 12 years), and the control group comprised 110 healthy children without any history of reflux or urinary tract infection (30 boys, 80 girls; age range 2 months to 12 years). Fasting urine was analyzed for the calcium/creatinine (Ca/Cr) and uric acid/creatinine (UA/Cr) ratios. Hypercalciuria was more frequently diagnosed in the VUR patients than in the control group (21.3 vs. 3.6%; P = 0.0001). Significant differences between the two groups were also found for the mean Ca/Cr and UA/Cr ratios (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.0001, respectively). No differences were found in the urinary Ca/Cr or UA/Cr ratios related to VUR grading or unilateral/bilateral VUR in the patient group, with the exception of those for hypercalciuria and mild VUR (P = 0.03). The association of urinary stones and microlithiasis in the VUR group was 29.6%. Our results demonstrate that the frequency of hypercalciuria and hyperuricosuria was higher in pediatric patients with VUR than in healthy children. Knowing this relationship, preventive and therapeutic interventions for stone formation in VUR could be greatly expanded.