Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Biomed Phys Eng Express 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Chiba, 263-8555, JAPAN.

The spatial resolution of small animal positron emission tomography (PET) scanners can be improved by the use of crystals with fine pitch and rejection of inter-crystal scattering (ICS) events, which leads to a better quantification of radiopharmaceuticals. On the other hand, depth-of-interaction (DOI) information is essential to preserve the spatial resolution at the PET field-of-view (FOV) periphery while keeping the sensitivity. In this study we proposed a novel staggered 3-layer DOI detector using BaSO4 reflector material for an enhanced crystal identification performance as well as ICS event rejection capability over those of ESR reflector based DOI detectors. Read More

J Neural Eng 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Foundation of Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT'IS), Zeughausstrasse 43, Zurich, 8004, SWITZERLAND.

Objective: Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a promising non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) technique. TUS can reach deeper areas and target smaller regions in the brain than other NIBS techniques, but its application in humans is hampered by the lack of a straightforward and reliable procedure to predict the induced ultrasound exposure. Here, we examined how skull modeling affects computer simulations of TUS. Read More

J Neurosurg Spine 2021 Apr 9:1-9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

1Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto.

Objective: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is among the most common pathologies affecting the spinal cord but its natural history is poorly characterized. The purpose of this study was to investigate functional outcomes in patients with DCM who were managed nonoperatively as well as the utility of quantitative clinical measures and MRI to detect deterioration.

Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed DCM or recurrent myelopathic symptoms after previous surgery who were initially managed nonoperatively were included. Read More

Thromb Res 2021 Mar 29;202:128-133. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Division of General Internal Medicine, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address:

Introduction: Real-world evidence on the effects of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients with cancer associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) is limited. Thus, our population-based cohort study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of DOACs compared to the standard of care low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) in this vulnerable population.

Materials And Methods: Using linked administrative healthcare databases from the province of Québec, Canada, we identified patients with incident VTE from 2012 to 2015 and a cancer diagnosis in the year before the VTE, who initiated treatment with anticoagulants within 30 days after the VTE. Read More

Sleep Med Rev 2021 Mar 12;57:101468. Epub 2021 Mar 12.

Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil.

Sleep bruxism (SB) is a behavior of central origin that is related to different factors. This systematic review aimed to determine the prevalence of clinical signs and symptoms of the masticatory system and their association in children with SB. A structured search in ten databases were taken. Read More

Am J Otolaryngol 2021 Mar 31;42(5):103016. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Otolaryngology, Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America.

Purpose: Pediatric cystic fibrosis (CF) patients have a variable onset, severity, and progression of sinonasal disease. The objective of this study was to identify genotypic and phenotypic factors associated with CF that are predictive of sinonasal disease, recurrent nasal polyposis, and failure to respond to standard treatment.

Methods: A retrospective case series was conducted of 30 pediatric patients with CF chronic rhinosinusitis with and without polyps. Read More

J Pharm Biomed Anal 2021 Mar 26;199:114048. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China.

Low early diagnosis rate and unclear pathogenesis are the primary reasons for the high mortality of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Lipidomics is a powerful tool for marker discovery and mechanism explanation. Hence, a ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based non-targeted lipidomics analysis was performed to acquire lipid profiling of 153 serum samples including healthy control (HC, n = 50), benign ovarian tumor (BOT, n = 41), and EOC (n = 62) to reveal lipid disturbance, then differential lipids were verified in another sample set including 187 sera. Read More

Mult Scler Relat Disord 2021 Mar 31;51:102930. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Hacettepe University, Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, 06100 Samanpazarı/Altındag, Ankara, Turkey. Electronic address:

Background: Local vibration (LV) is a physiotherapy application that aims to reduce spasticity. The study aimed to compare the effects of 50 Hz vs. 100 Hz LV on mild-moderate spasticity, functional performance and muscle architecture. Read More

Int J Food Microbiol 2021 Mar 31;347:109193. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia, 1109 Experiment Street, Griffin, GA 30223, USA.

Current consumer preferences for both clean label food ingredients and convenience-based foods has provided a unique opportunity to explore the application of novel natural food preservatives in sous vide products. The anaerobic environment and relatively low thermal processing of the sous vide process creates a favorable environment for the survival, germination, and outgrowth of spore-forming bacterium Clostridium perfringens. The aim of this study was to identify effective novel natural ingredient formulations against C. Read More

Heart Lung 2021 Apr 6;50(4):504-524. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada; KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute & Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network, University of Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address:

Phase III/IV cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is recommended to promote maintenance of benefits achieved during Phase II; there has been no meta-analysis to test this to date. This study determined the effects of maintenance CR on any outcome, with consideration of sex. Seven databases were searched from inception-January 2020. Read More

Soc Sci Med 2021 Mar 25;277:113878. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

Singapore Police Force, Singapore.

Rationale: Despite the growing body of research on the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model, evidence is scarce for the generalizability of the model across various national and occupational contexts. Also, studies that examine a wider variety of health and well-being outcomes of ERI are warranted, especially in vocations in which effort and stress is known to be high and reward is usually limited - such as policing.

Objective: The current study examined the relationship between the ERI perception and four employee well-being outcomes (self-reported physical health, sickness absence, job satisfaction, and work-life effectiveness) among a sample of police officers in Singapore. Read More

Nutrition 2021 Feb 26;89:111219. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.

Objectives: Preterm births are at higher risk for neurodevelopment (NDV) disabilities. To limit long-term consequences, guidelines recommend aggressive parenteral nutrition (PN) soon after birth. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of energy-enhanced PN in the first week of life on long-term NDV in preterm neonates. Read More

Eur J Paediatr Neurol 2021 Mar 31;32:66-72. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia. Electronic address:

Gaucher disease type 3 (GD3) is a severely debilitating disorder characterized by multisystemic manifestations and neurodegeneration. Enzyme replacement therapy alleviates visceral signs and symptoms but has no effect on neurological features. Ambroxol has been suggested as an enzyme enhancement agent. Read More

Ann Diagn Pathol 2021 Mar 31;52:151740. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, United States of America. Electronic address:

Ground-glass (GG) hepatocytes are classically associated with chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection, storage disorders, or cyanamide therapy. In a subset of cases, an exact etiology cannot be identified. In this study, we sought to characterize the clinical, histological, and ultrastructural findings associated with HBV-negative GG hepatocytes. Read More

Chemosphere 2021 Mar 24;278:130326. Epub 2021 Mar 24.

Ingram School of Engineering, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA.

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) play a vital role in attenuating contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) during potable water reuse. AOPs are conventionally performed by irradiating with a 254-nm low-pressure (LP) mercury-vapor (Hg) ultraviolet (UV) lamp along with chemical treatment. Compared with UV-C light treatment (200-280 nm), vacuum-UV (V-UV) light treatment (100-200 nm) is advantageous in terms of hydroxyl radical generation without the requirement for chemical treatment. Read More

J Crit Care 2021 Mar 25;64:82-90. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

Department of Intensive Care Medicine, HwaMei Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315000, China; Ningbo Institute of Life and Health Industry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315000, China. Electronic address:

Purpose: This network meta-analysis aims to compare the efficacy and safety of various renal replacement therapy (RRT) modalities in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI).

Materials And Methods: We searched the electronic databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing different RRT modalities, including continuous RRT, intermittent RRT, hybrid RRT, and peritoneal dialysis (PD), in critically ill patients with AKI through July 26, 2020. The primary outcomes were renal recovery and short-term mortality. Read More

Musculoskelet Sci Pract 2021 Mar 24;53:102370. Epub 2021 Mar 24.

Department of Medical Surgical-Therapy, Medicine Faculty, Extremadura University, Badajoz, Spain.

Background: Nonspecific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) is one of the most common and frequent health problems. OBJETIVE: to compare postural control (i.e. Read More

Food Chem 2021 Mar 30;356:129728. Epub 2021 Mar 30.

State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China.

Alginate is a low-cost polysaccharide found abundantly in seaweeds which consists of mannuronate and guluronate, and it is considered a sustainable gum source for dietary fiber. To solve the high viscosity-related problems while retaining its physiological properties, four partially degraded alginate products (PDA1-4) with molecular weight of 1.05-0. Read More

Bioorg Chem 2021 Apr 1;111:104886. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery of Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:

Our present and previous phytochemical investigations on Leptopus lolonum have resulted in the isolation of almost 30 phenylpropanoid-conjugated pentacyclic triterpenoids (PCPTs). During the continuous study on PCPTs, this kind of triterpenoid ester is considered as a natural product with low toxicity because of it's widely distribution in natural plants and edible fruits including kiwi fruit, durian, jujube, pawpaw, apple and pear. In the present work, we report the isolation, structural elucidation and cytotoxic evaluation of four new PCPTs (1-4) which obtained from L. Read More

Mar Pollut Bull 2021 Apr 6;167:112288. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 20224, Taiwan.

This study evaluates the rarely observed phenomenon of the simultaneous occurrences of phytoplankton blooms, hypoxia, and upwelling along the Zhejiang coast in the East China Sea. Results show that the upwelling uplifted bottom water to 5-10 m below the surface. In the upwelling region, phytoplankton blooms (Chl a = 10. Read More

J Hazard Mater 2021 Apr 1;416:125793. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

School of Environmental Science and Engineering/Tianjin Key lab of Biomass Waste Utilization, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.

Pyrolysis is a promising technique to achieve the sustainable utilization of heavy metal hyperaccumulator derived from phytoremediation of contaminated soils. To investigate the feasibility of synergistic treatment of hyperaccumulator and plastic waste (i.e. Read More

J Hazard Mater 2021 Apr 1;416:125768. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Wastewater Treatment, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address:

Flow-through electrodes generally outcompete traditional parallel-plate electrodes in current efficiency and mass transfer. High-performance electrode materials can be costly and complicated to fabricate, hindering their wide application. In this study, we used commercial graphite felt (GF) as the cathode of a flow-through electrochemical cell to investigate its potential in treating Cr(VI) solution through electroreduction. Read More

Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2021 Mar 31;95:104411. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Nursing, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Background: Malnutrition among older people is one of the serious public health problem worldwide. Nutritional status and levels of nutrients of older patients with COVID-19 effect on COVID-19 outcomes. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the prevalence of malnutrition and levels of nutrients associated with outcomes of the older patients with COVID-19. Read More

Bone 2021 Apr 6:115943. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Electronic address:

Background: Abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) identified on dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) lateral spine images is predictive of cardiovascular outcomes, but is time-consuming to perform manually. Whether this procedure can be automated using convolutional neural networks (CNNs), a class of machine learning algorithms used for image processing, has not been widely investigated.

Methods: Using the Province of Manitoba Bone Density Program DXA database, we selected a random sample of 1100 VFA images from individuals qualifying for VFA as part of their osteoporosis assessment. Read More

Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM 2021 Apr 6:100374. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Maternal supplemental oxygen is often used intrapartum, with other fetal resuscitative maneuvers, for non-reassuring fetal heart rate monitoring (NRFHRM).

Objective: To determine if maternal intrapartum administration of oxygen altered the rate of cesarean delivery (CD) when compared to room air.

Study Design: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Read More

Biomaterials 2021 Apr 1;272:120793. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Center for Theragnosis, Biomedical Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address:

Therapeutic application of CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases remains a challenge due to the lack of efficient in vivo delivery carriers. Here, we examine the ability of lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with hepatitis C virus (HCV)/E1E2 envelope glycoproteins to systemically deliver CRISPR/Cas9 to hepatic tumors in vivo. We demonstrated that systemic administration of E1E2-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors can selectively deliver Cas9 and sgRNA specific for kinesin spindle protein (KSP) to Huh7 tumors in the orthotopic Huh7 mice due to the specific interactions between E1E2 and their cellular receptors. Read More

Food Chem Toxicol 2021 Apr 6:112188. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Department of Toxicology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Craiova, 200349, Romania. Electronic address:

This study aimed to evaluate the long-term low-dose effects of exposure to a mixture of 6 pesticide active substances (diquat, imazamox, imazethapyr, tepraloxydin, bentazone, acifluorfen) and to elucidate if chronic vitamin deficiency can influence their toxicity. Two hundred Wistar rats were divided in 4 groups: a vitamin-sufficiency control group, a vitamin-deficiency control group, a vitamin sufficiency test group and a vitamin-deficiency test group. The test groups were treated with the aforementioned pesticides at doses 100 times lower than the corresponding NOAEL. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:

Lipase enzymes play a central role in biotechnology and the food industry. Diacylglyceride lipases (DAG) have received considerable attention due to their physiological significance and potential industrial usage. However, compared to the wide application of triacylglycerol (TAG) lipases, DAG lipases have a limited application due to their low thermostability and specific activity. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Engineering Research Center of Bio-Process of Ministry of Education, School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230601, Anhui, China.

Currently, there are few studies on acid-soluble pectin from okra, especially in biological activity for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. In this study, the antioxidant properties of acid-soluble okra pectin components and their anti-inflammatory were explored. Firstly, two acid-soluble okra pectic fractions, namely crude acid-soluble okra pectin (CAOP) and acid-soluble okra pectin (AOP), were obtained and exhibited structural and compositional variation. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Laboratory of Enzyme Engineering and Microbiology, National School of Engineering of Sfax (ENIS), University of Sfax, P.O. Box 1173, Sfax 3038, Tunisia; Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science of Gabes, Omar Ibn Khattab Street, Gabes 6029, Tunisia. Electronic address:

The purpose of this study was to develop and characterize chitosan (Ch)-based films incorporated with varying molecular weight (Mw) and acetylation degree (AD) chitosan-depolymerization-products (CDP), to be applied as drug delivery materials. As compared to Ch-film, optical and antioxidant potentials of Ch/CDP-based films were improved, particularly using low Mw and AD-CDP. Whereas, films water resistance, mechanical and antibacterial properties increased as CDP-Mw increased and AD decreased. Read More