Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

J Physiol 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States.

Key Points: Fetal glucagon concentrations are elevated in the setting of placental insufficiency, hypoxia, and elevated stress hormones. Chronically elevated glucagon concentrations in the adult result in profound decreases in amino acid concentrations and lean body mass. Experimental elevation of fetal glucagon concentrations in a late-gestation pregnant sheep results in lower fetal amino acid concentrations, lower protein accretion, and lower fetal weight, in addition to decreased placental function. Read More

Nanotechnology 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa Faculty of Engineering, 25 Templeton St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, CANADA.

By utilizing ab initio density functional theory, the structural and electronic properties of novel silicene/ZnI2 heterobilayers (HBLs) were investigated. Constructing HBLs with ZnI¬2 in different stacking configurations leads to direct bandgap opening of silicene at K point, which ranges from 138.2 meV to 201. Read More

Chemosphere 2021 Mar 31;279:130456. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, United States.

Recent studies suggested that biochars could mediate the degradation of organic contaminants. The role of biochars in mediating organic contaminant degradation could be amplified in a Fenton-like reaction, and comparing biochars with varied properties may provide insightful information to understand the reaction mechanisms. In this study, biochar was applied in a Fenton-like reaction system with Fe and persulfate (PS) to degrade 2,4-dichlorophenel (2,4-DCP). Read More

Water Res 2021 Apr 8;198:117125. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 United States. Electronic address:

Metal-free polymeric carbon nitride (CN) photocatalysts offer attractive technological advantages over the conventional transition metal oxides or sulfides -based photocatalysts in water disinfection, but their antimicrobial activities are limited by their rapid charge carrier recombination and low specific surface areas. By controlling photocatalytic pathways, we obtained in amino-rich holey ultrathin g-CN nanosheets (AHUCN) a highly efficient inactivation rate against E-coli, which is the highest among the monolithic g-CN and exceeds the antibacterial performance of the most of the previously reported g-CN-based photocatalysts. Both the experiments and theoretical calculations demonstrated that the high photocatalytic disinfection performance of AHUCN was derived from the synergistic advantages of their unique holey ultrathin structure and the amino - rich surface in controlling the charge separation and transfer, and most importantly in increasing the photo-production of the dominant antibacterial species, HO. Read More

Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2021 Apr 9;261:41-45. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Surgery Department, Institut Cancérologie de L'ouest, Nantes, Saint Herblain, France.

Background: There is a trend towards de-escalation in early breast cancer axillary surgery. In the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z-0011 trial, observation was shown to be non-inferior in terms of overall survival to complementary axillary lymph node dissection (cALND) in patients with up to two sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastases. The study included patients with T1-T2 invasive breast cancer, clinically node negative, undergoing breast-conserving surgery with SLN biopsy, followed by systemic therapy and radiotherapy. Read More

J Environ Manage 2021 Apr 17;290:112591. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Office of Scientific Research and Development, Southwest Jiaotong University, 611756, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Electronic address:

Waste classification is regarded as one of the most important strategies for waste management, and its success depends on the active participation of the public. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and attitude-behavior-condition (A-B-C) theory, this research investigated the key factors affecting residents' domestic waste classification intention (WCI) and waste classification behavior (WCB), and explored the moderating effects of three external factors including infrastructure (INF), government publicity (GP), and incentive measures (IM) on the intention-behavior relationship. The valid data were collected from 584 residents via conducting a face-to-face interview in Chengdu, a pilot city of waste classification in China, and analyzed by using the structural equation model (SEM). Read More

Med Hypotheses 2021 Apr 9;151:110592. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Department of Comparative Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address:

COVID-19 is an airway disease that has affected ~125 million people worldwide, caused by a novel coronavirus termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), spread through respiratory droplets, direct contact, and aerosol transmission. Although most patients presenting with absent or mild symptoms recover completely, the highest morbidity and mortality rates are seen in the elderly, and patients with comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, immunosuppressive diseases, diabetes, and pre-existing respiratory illnesses. Several therapeutic strategies have been examined, but a wide-ranging therapeutic option for particularly severe cases of COVID-19 remains to be elucidated. Read More

Food Chem 2021 Apr 9;357:129761. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, PR China. Electronic address:

Lactones are important flavor compounds in lots of foodstuffs. They also play an important role in brandy, but have not been studied at large. In this study, solid-phase extraction (SPE) and stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) combined with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) were applied to identify and quantify lactones in brandies between China and France. Read More

J Pediatr Nurs 2021 Apr 17;59:125-130. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Center for Pediatric Psychology, Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA.

Purpose: The transition to college is associated with numerous stressors, including environmental changes, increased academic expectations, and changes in social support, all of which may be exacerbated by the added responsibility of managing a chronic medical condition. Huang (2019) proposed a model examining the relationships between coping styles, transition readiness, and health anxiety, and suggested that greater transition readiness is associated with adaptive coping strategies and less health anxiety. However, there are limited findings as to how poor transition readiness relates to health anxiety. Read More

Behav Brain Res 2021 Apr 17:113311. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Centre du Cerveau² - Centre intégré pluridisciplinaire de l'étude du cerveau, de la cognition et de la conscience, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Neuromodulation Center, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the prefrontal cortex has been shown to improve behavioral responsiveness in patients with disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury, especially those in minimally conscious state (MCS). However, one potential barrier of clinical response to tDCS is the timing of stimulation with regard to the fluctuations of vigilance that characterize this population. Indeed, a previous study showed that the vigilance of MCS patients has periodic average cycles of 70 minutes (range 57-80 minutes), potentially preventing them to be in an optimal neural state to benefit from tDCS when applied randomly. Read More

Mol Metab 2021 Apr 17:101236. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Dianne Nunnally Hoppes Laboratory for Diabetes Complications, Section of Vascular Cell Biology, Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215 USA. Electronic address:

Background: Insulin has been demonstrated to exert direct and indirect effects on vascular tissues. Its actions in vascular cells are mediated by two major pathways: The insulin receptor substrate 1/2-phosphoinositide-3 kinase/Akt (IRS1/2/PI3K/Akt) pathway and the Src/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, both of which contribute to the expression and distribution of metabolites, hormones and cytokines.

Scope Of Review: In this review, we summarize the current understanding on insulin's physiological and pathophysiological actions and associated signaling pathways in vascular cells, mainly in endothelial cells (EC) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), and how these processes lead to selective insulin resistance. Read More

Toxicol Lett 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

LEITAT Technological Center, Carrer de la Innovació 2, 08225, Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address:

The fluorescent properties of cadmium telluride (CdTe) containing quantum dots (QDs) have led to novel products and applications in the ink and pigment industry. The toxic effects of the emissions associated to the use of printing ink containing CdTe QDs might differ from those of conventional formulations which do not integrate nanoparticles, as CdTe QDs might be emitted. Within this work, the airborne emissions of a water-soluble fluorescent ink containing polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated CdTe QDs of 3-5 nm diameter have been characterized and studied under controlled conditions during household inkjet printing in a scenario simulating the use phase. Read More

Reprod Toxicol 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Centre for Cardiovascular and Adverse Drug Reactions, Department of Biotechnology, School of Bio and Chemical Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil, Tamil Nadu, PIN 626126, India. Electronic address:

The anticancer drug Doxorubicin has been associated with several adverse side-effects including reproductive toxicity in both genders. The current review has complied the mechanisms of doxorubicin induced reproductive toxicity. The articles cited in the review were searched using Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct. Read More

J Phys Chem Lett 2021 Apr 20:4018-4023. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Institut für Anorganische und Angewandte Chemie, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz, 6, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.

The morphology and structural changes of confined matter are still far from being understood. This report deals with the development of a novel method based on the combination of anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy to directly probe the evolution of the xenon adsorbate phase in mesoporous silicon during gas adsorption at 165 K. The interface area and size evolution of the confined xenon phase were determined via ASAXS demonstrating that filling and emptying the pores follow two distinct mechanisms. Read More

Org Lett 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Advanced Materials in Tropical Island Resources, Hainan Provincial Key Lab of Fine Chem, Hainan Provincial Fine Chemical Engineering Research Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.

A direct decarbonylative Sonogashira coupling of terminal alkynes with carboxylic acids was achieved through palladium catalysis. This reaction did not use overstoichiometric oxidants, thus overcoming the homocoupling issue of terminal alkynes. Under the reaction conditions, a wide range of carboxylic acids including those bioactive ones could couple readily with various terminal alkynes, thus providing a relative general method for preparing internal alkynes. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 1590-14, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.

Thrombin, a serine protease playing a central role in the coagulation cascade reactions and a potent neurotoxin produced by injured brain endothelial cells, is a recognized cardiac biomarker and a critical biomarker for Alzheimer's disease development. Both in vivo and in vitro, its low physiological concentrations and nonspecific binding of other components of physiological fluids complicate electroanalysis of thrombin. Here, femtomolar levels of thrombin in serum and an artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were detected by the indicator-free electrochemical methodology exploiting the O reduction reaction directly, with no electron transfer mediators, electrocatalyzed by the covalent G4-hemin DNAzyme complex naturally self-assembling upon thrombin binding to the hemin-modified 29-mer DNA aptamer sequence tethered to gold via an alkanethiol linker. Read More

J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University Children's Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

Context: Persons with monogenic diabetes due to inactivating glucokinase (GCK) variants typically do not require treatment, except potentially during pregnancy. In pregnancy, fetal GCK genotype determines whether treatment is indicated, but non-invasive methods are not clinically available.

Objective: To develop a method to determine fetal GCK genotype non-invasively using maternal cell-free fetal DNA. Read More

PLoS One 2021 20;16(4):e0249577. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America.

Human lower-limb kinematic measurements are critical for many applications including gait analysis, enhancing athletic performance, reducing or monitoring injury risk, augmenting warfighter performance, and monitoring elderly fall risk, among others. We present a new method to estimate lower-limb kinematics using an error-state Kalman filter that utilizes an array of body-worn inertial measurement units (IMUs) and four kinematic constraints. We evaluate the method on a simplified 3-body model of the lower limbs (pelvis and two legs) during walking using data from simulation and experiment. Read More

PLoS One 2021 20;16(4):e0250465. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Natural and Computational Sciences Faculty, Department of Biology, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.

SARS-CoV-2 disease 2019 (COVID-19) is pandemic and currently becomes a serious cause of death worldwide. It is caused by a SARS-CoV-2 belonging to a family known as corona virus. The aim of this study is to assess the community knowledge, attitude and practice strategy implementation on SARS-CoV-2 disease 2019 (COVID-19). Read More

J Am Acad Orthop Surg 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

From the Harvard Medical School & Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA (Parisien), Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (Shin and Prasad), Columbia University Medical Center, New York City, NY (Trofa and Levine), Boston University Medical Center (Li), Boston, MA, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA (Parisien, Flynn, and Ganley).

Introduction: The purpose of this investigation was to assess the utilization of telehealth capabilities by pediatric orthopaedic departments across the United States in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: One hundred four pediatric orthopaedic departments were investigated regarding each institution's current telehealth utilization as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: Of the 104 hospitals contacted across the United States, 100 pediatric orthopaedic departments in 39 states responded for an overall response rate of 96%. Read More

AIDS 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center; Cleveland, OH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, OH Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH Dept Food Science and Technology, and the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University Joint Clinical Research Centre, Kampala, Uganda Ohio State University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Columbus, OH.

Objective: HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy (ART) have both been linked to dyslipidemia and increased cardiovascular disease (CVD). The relationships among the lipidome, immune activation, and subclinical vascular disease in children with perinatally acquired HIV (PHIV) have not been investigated.

Methods: Serum lipid composition, including 13 lipid classes constituting 850 different lipid species were measured by direct infusion-tandem mass spectrometry in samples from 20 ART-treated PHIV and 20 age- and sex-matched HIV- Ugandan children. Read More

J Clin Invest 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Rapidly growing tumors often experience hypoxia and nutrient (e.g., glucose) deficiency because of poor vascularization. Read More

IEEE Trans Image Process 2021 Apr 20;PP. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Plant roots are the main conduit to its interaction with the physical and biological environment. A 3D root system architecture can provide fundamental and applied knowledge of a plant's ability to thrive, but the construction of 3D structures for thin and complicated plant roots is challenging. Existing methods such as structure-from-motion and shape-from-silhouette require multiple images, as input, under a complicated optimization process, which is usually not convenient in fieldwork. Read More

Microb Drug Resist 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Division of Bioresources, Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan.

Quinolone-resistant nontyphoidal having serine replaced by isoleucine at the 83rd amino acid in GyrA (GyrA-Ser83Ile) has recently been found in Asian countries. In this study, we aimed to examine the direct effect of substitution Ser83Ile on DNA gyrase activity and/or resistance to quinolones. Using 50% of the maximal inhibitory concentrations (ICs) of quinolones, recombinant wild type (WT) and seven mutant DNA gyrases having amino acid substitutions, including Ser83Ile, were screened for enzymatic activity that causes supercoils in relaxed plasmid DNA and resistance to quinolones. Read More

Genet Test Mol Biomarkers 2021 Apr;25(4):293-301

Department of Community Medicine and Social Healthcare Science, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a lower motor neuron disease with autosomal recessive inheritance caused by homozygous deletions. Although SMA has been considered as incurable, newly developed drugs improve life prognoses and motor functions of patients. To maximize the efficacy of the drugs, SMA patients should be treated before symptoms become apparent. Read More

J Altern Complement Med 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia.

This metaethnography provides an interpretative synthesis of complementary medicine (CM) practitioners' perceptions toward their health model and the healing process. CM is commonly described on the basis of its distinction from biomedicine with limited research available on CM practitioners' understanding of what the essence of their practice is and how healing transpires as a result. This is despite the significant patronage of CM and high rates of couse with biomedical services. Read More

J Phys Chem B 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Science & Engineering of Living Systems, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.

Free energies of hydration are of fundamental interest for modeling and understanding conformational and phase equilibria of macromolecular solutes in aqueous phases. Of particular relevance to systems such as intrinsically disordered proteins are the free energies of hydration and hydration structures of model compounds that mimic charged side chains of Arg, Lys, Asp, and Glu. Here, we deploy a Thermodynamic Cycle-based Proton Dissociation (TCPD) approach in conjunction with data from direct measurements to obtain estimates for the free energies of hydration for model compounds that mimic the side chains of Arg, Lys, Asp, and Glu. Read More

Acc Chem Res 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, David Braley Center for Antibiotic Discovery, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 3Z5, Canada.

ConspectusRifamycin antibiotics include the WHO essential medicines rifampin, rifabutin, and rifapentine. These are semisynthetic derivatives of the natural product rifamycins, originally isolated from the soil bacterium . These antibiotics are primarily used to treat mycobacterial infections, including tuberculosis. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD), Hokkaido University, Kita 21 Nishi 10, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021, Japan.

We present a systematic study on the support effect of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), regarding substrate adsorption. A remarkable enhancement of both catalytic activity and selectivity for the ethanol (EtOH) production reaction through acetic acid (AcOH) hydrogenation (AH) was observed on Pt nanoparticles supported on MOFs. The systematic study on catalysis using homogeneously loaded Pt catalysts, in direct contact with seven different MOF supports (MIL-125-NH, UiO-66-NH, HKUST-1, MIL-101, Zn-MOF-74, Mg-MOF-74, and MIL-121) (abbreviated as ), found that MOFs having a high affinity for the AcOH substrate (UiO-66-NH and MIL-125-NH) showed high catalytic activity for AH. Read More

Transbound Emerg Dis 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Centre for Environmental Studies, Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

Warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) and bushpigs (Potamochoerus larvatus) are considered as the wild reservoirs of ASF. They are both present in Ndumo Game Reserve (NGR), located in the Northern South African Province of KwaZulu on the border with Mozambique. In that area, the occurrence of tick-warthog sylvatic cycle of ASF has been suspected for years. Read More