Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

J Environ Manage 2021 Apr 6;289:112517. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Environmental Engineering Program, Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, 515063, China. Electronic address:

Ureolytic bacteria can be a promising mediator used for the immobilization of potentially toxic elements via microbially-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) process from biodegradable ions to carbonate form. Electronic waste (E-waste) environment is very complex compared to general metal contaminated soil, however, MICP has not been studied under such an environment. In this study, three bacterial strains were successfully isolated from an E-waste area in Guiyu, China, and indicated to have positive ureolytic behavior with significant heavy metal resistance (specific to Cu and Pb), among which, a strain of Lysinibacillus sp. Read More

Asian J Psychiatr 2021 Mar 27;59:102637. Epub 2021 Mar 27.

Molecular Genetics Lab, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India; Accelerator Program for Discovery in Brain disorders using Stem cells (ADBS), National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. Electronic address:

Abnormal indices of cell cycle regulation have been reported in multiple psychiatric disorders. Though reports specific to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are scant, numerous studies have highlighted partly common underlying biology in psychiatric disorders, cell cycle regulation being one such process. In this study, we therefore aimed to explore cell cycle in OCD. Read More

Neurochem Int 2021 Apr 6:105041. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

School of Rehabilitation, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China. Electronic address:

Fluoxetine (FLX), a commonly used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, is often used to treat depression during pregnancy. However, prenatal exposure to FLX has been associated with a series of neuropsychiatric illnesses. The use of a rodent model can provide a clear indication as to whether prenatal exposure to SSRIs, independent of maternal psychiatric disorders or genetic syndromes, can cause long-term behavioral abnormalities in offspring. Read More

PLoS One 2021 9;16(4):e0249801. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Crustaceans are major constituents of aquatic ecosystems and, as such, changes in their behavior and the structure and function of their bodies can serve as indicators of alterations in their immediate environment, such as those associated with climate change and anthropogenic contamination. We have used bioinformatics and a de novo transcriptome assembly approach to identify potential targets for developing specific antibodies to serve as nervous system function markers for freshwater prawns of the Macrobrachium spp. Total RNA was extracted from brain ganglia of Macrobrachium carcinus freshwater prawns and Illumina Next Generation Sequencing was performed using an Eel Pond mRNA Seq Protocol to construct a de novo transcriptome. Read More

J Clin Neurol 2021 Apr;17(2):155-163

Department of Neurology, Udayana University, Udayana University Hospital, Bali, Indonesia.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can reportedly manifest as an acute stroke, with most cases presenting as large vessel ischemic stroke in patients with or without comorbidities. The exact pathomechanism of stroke in COVID-19 remains ambiguous. The findings of previous studies indicate that the most likely underlying mechanisms are cerebrovascular pathological conditions following viral infection, inflammation-induced endothelial dysfunction, and hypercoagulability. Read More

Tokai J Exp Clin Med 2021 Apr 20;46(1):33-43. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Sensory and Motor System Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.

Objective: Scar formation is an inevitable outcome after craniofacial surgery in the congenital facial anomaly. Scarless healing is the ultimate treatment after the surgery. Therefore, we elucidate the mechanism underlying scarless healing during fetal development. Read More

Abdom Radiol (NY) 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, USA.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) offers unique management challenges as it commonly occurs in the setting of underlying chronic liver disease. The management of HCC is directed primarily by the clinical stage. The most commonly used staging system is the Barcelona-Clinic Liver Cancer system, which considers tumor burden based on imaging, liver function and the patient's performance status. Read More

Emerg Top Life Sci 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, Haryana 121001, India.

The combinatorial space of an enzyme sequence has astronomical possibilities and exploring it with contemporary experimental techniques is arduous and often ineffective. Multi-target objectives such as concomitantly achieving improved selectivity, solubility and activity of an enzyme have narrow plausibility under approaches of restricted mutagenesis and combinatorial search. Traditional enzyme engineering approaches have a limited scope for complex optimization due to the requirement of a priori knowledge or experimental burden of screening huge protein libraries. Read More

Autophagy 2021 Apr 9:1-21. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Anesthesiology, Changzheng Hospital, Naval Medical University, 415 Fengyang Road, Shanghai 200003, China.

Macroautophagy/autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved process, plays an important role in the regulation of immune inflammation and nervous system homeostasis. However, the exact role and mechanism of autophagy in pain is still unclear. Here, we showed that impaired autophagy flux mainly occurred in astrocytes during the maintenance of neuropathic pain. Read More

J Integr Neurosci 2021 Mar;20(1):21-31

Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801 IL, USA.

The prolonged effects of maternal immune activation in response stressors during gestation on the offspring's molecular pathways after birth are beginning to be understood. An association between maternal immune activation and neurodevelopmental and behavior disorders such as autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders has been detected in long-term gene dysregulation. The incidence of alternative splicing among neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptor genes, critical cell-cell signaling molecules, associated with behavior may compromise the replicability of reported maternal immune activation effects at the gene level. Read More

World J Gastroenterol 2021 Apr;27(13):1296-1310

Institute of Microbiology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38040, Punjab, Pakistan.

The worldwide outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has challenged the priorities of healthcare system in terms of different clinical management and infection transmission, particularly those related to hepatic-disease comorbidities. Epidemiological data evidenced that COVID-19 patients with altered liver function because of hepatitis infection and cholestasis have an adverse prognosis and experience worse health outcomes. COVID-19-associated liver injury is correlated with various liver diseases following a severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection that can progress during the treatment of COVID-19 patients with or without pre-existing liver disease. Read More

Neuropsychopharmacology 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Dimensional models of anxiety and depression highlight common and distinct symptom clusters that are thought to reflect disruptions in underlying functional processes. The current study investigated how functioning of threat neurocircuitry relates to symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression. Participants were aged 18-19 years (n = 229, 158 female) and were selected to ensure a range of scores on symptom measures. Read More

Rehabilitacion (Madr) 2021 Apr 5. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Universidad Autónoma de Manizales, Manizales, Colombia.

Unilateral Transtibial Amputees (UTA) usually present deficiencies in the mechanisms underlying their gait likely because of the absence of the resected segment, thus having an impact on the ability to actively adjust the lower limb prosthesis. Five participants with UTA were evaluated considering the ground reaction forces during gait by using an integrated BTS GAITLAB system. The first and the second vertical peak forces tended to be greater in the Healthy Lower Limb (HLL) than in the Lower Limb prosthesis (LLP). Read More

Int Rev Cell Mol Biol 2021 23;359:1-80. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

Instituto de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación en Biotecnología Sanitaria de Elche (IDiBE), Universitas Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain; CIBER de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address:

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by pancreatic islet inflammation (insulitis) and specific pancreatic β-cell destruction by an immune attack. Although the precise underlying mechanisms leading to the autoimmune assault remain poorly understood, it is well accepted that insulitis takes place in the context of a conflicting dialogue between pancreatic β-cells and the immune cells. Moreover, both host genetic background (i. Read More

AANA J 2021 Apr;89(2):155-160

is the associate director of the DNP-Nurse Anesthesia Program at Baylor College of Medicine. She is an assistant professor in the college's Department of Anesthesiology and School of Health Professions. Dr Bullerwell served as senior author. Email:

Sustained hypotension impairs perfusion, causing permanent organ damage, neurologic deficit, and cardiac arrest. Emerging evidence suggests that noncardiac anesthesia providers can use echocardiography to manage refractory hypotension. Echocardiographic findings may reveal the underlying pathology of hemodynamic compromise and can guide the selection of appropriate resuscitative measures. Read More

Thyroid 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Seoul National University College of Medicine, 37990, Radiology, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of);

Background: The guideline for managing pediatric thyroid nodules has not been established. We investigated the appropriateness of the Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology (KSThR) guidelines and the need to consider risk factors for managing pediatric thyroid nodules.

Methods: From August 2007 to February 2020, a database of thyroid nodules in patients under 19 years of age who underwent fine needle aspiration (FNA) was analyzed. Read More

Child Maltreat 2021 Apr 9:10775595211006464. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

311308Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

State-level child welfare policies and practices affect what can be referred, investigated, and substantiated as child maltreatment, and these institutional factors vary across states and over time. Researchers typically have not accounted for these factors in analyses, confounding institutional features with the underlying construct they seek to study. The present study addresses this limitation by demonstrating how changes in specific state child welfare policies and practices influence reported and substantiated maltreatment in the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Read More

Brain Behav Evol 2021 Apr 8:1-9. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Department of Biology, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, Florida, USA.

Amphetamine is a potent psychostimulant also used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. In vivo and in vitro data have demonstrated that amphetamine increases the amount of extra synaptic dopamine by both inhibiting reuptake and promoting efflux of dopamine through the dopamine transporter. Previous studies have shown that chronic use of amphetamine causes tolerance to the drug. Read More

Am J Emerg Med 2021 Mar 29;47:169-175. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

Department of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan; Japan Association of Acute Medicine Heatstroke and Hypothermia Surveillance Committee, Tokyo, Japan.

Background: The incidence of accidental hypothermia (AH) is low, and the length of hospital stay in patients with AH remains poorly understood. The present study explored which factors were related to prolonged hospitalization among patients with AH using Japan's nationwide registry data.

Methods: The data from the Hypothermia STUDY 2018, which included patients ≥18 years old with a body temperature ≤ 35 °C, were obtained from a multicenter registry for AH conducted at 89 institutions throughout Japan, collected from December 1, 2018, to February 28, 2019. Read More

Atherosclerosis 2021 Mar 25;324:58-68. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637551. Electronic address:

Background And Aims: Aging is the primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the mechanisms underlying age-linked atherosclerosis remain unclear. We previously observed that long-lived vascular matrix proteins can acquire 'gain-of-function' isoDGR motifs that might play a role in atherosclerotic pathology.

Methods: IsoDGR-specific mAb were generated and used for ELISA-based measurement of motif levels in plasma samples from patients with coronary artery diseases (CAD) and non-CAD controls. Read More

Cell Chem Biol 2021 Mar 31. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Molecular Machines and Signaling, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany. Electronic address:

Post-translational modification of proteins by ubiquitin is required for nearly all aspects of eukaryotic cell function. The numerous targets of ubiquitylation, and variety of ubiquitin modifications, are often likened to a code, where the ultimate messages are diverse responses to target ubiquitylation. E1, E2, and E3 multiprotein enzymatic assemblies modify specific targets and thus function as messengers. Read More

Cell Stem Cell 2021 Apr 5. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Department of Life Science Frontiers, CiRA, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. Electronic address:

Trophoblasts are extraembryonic cells that are essential for maintaining pregnancy. Human trophoblasts arise from the morula as trophectoderm (TE), which, after implantation, differentiates into cytotrophoblasts (CTs), syncytiotrophoblasts (STs), and extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs), composing the placenta. Here we show that naïve, but not primed, human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) recapitulate trophoblast development. Read More

Chemistry 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Northwestern University, Department of Chemistry, 2145 Sheridan Rd., 60208, Evanston, UNITED STATES.

Stimuli-responsive chromic materials such as photochromes, hydrochromes, thermochromes, and electrochromes have a long history of capturing the attention of scientists due to their potential industrial applications and novelty in popular culture. However, hybrid chromic materials that combine two or more stimuli-triggered color changing properties are not so well known. Herein, we report a design strategy that has led to a series of emissive 1,8-naphthalimide-viologen dyads which exhibit unusual dual photochromic and hydrochromic switching behavior in the solid-state when embedded in a cellulose matrix. Read More

PLoS One 2021 8;16(4):e0249622. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

School of Computer Science and McGill Centre for Bioinformatics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Latent knowledge can be extracted from the electronic notes that are recorded during patient encounters with the health system. Using these clinical notes to decipher a patient's underlying comorbidites, symptom burdens, and treatment courses is an ongoing challenge. Latent topic model as an efficient Bayesian method can be used to model each patient's clinical notes as "documents" and the words in the notes as "tokens". Read More

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021 Apr 9;70(14):519-522. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

National Center for Health Statistics, CDC.

CDC's National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) collects and reports annual mortality statistics using data from U.S. death certificates. Read More

Immunol Invest 2021 Apr 8:1-18. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Stem Cell Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

For many years, the question of how the maternal immune system tolerates the foreign fetus has remained unanswered, and numerous studies have considerably attempted to elucidate underlying mechanisms for fetomaternal tolerance. This review aimed at discussing various significant mechanisms in fetomaternal compatibility. At the fetomaternal interface, in addition to having efficient control against infections, innate and adaptive maternal immune systems selectively prevent fetal rejection. Read More

JCO Oncol Pract 2021 Apr 8:OP2000929. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Department of Urology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.

Purpose: To assess how active surveillance for prostate cancer is apportioned across specialties and how testing patterns and transition to treatment vary by specialty.

Methods: We used a 20% national sample of Medicare claims to identify men diagnosed with prostate cancer from 2010 through 2016 initiating surveillance (N = 13,048). Patients were assigned to the physician responsible for the bulk of surveillance care based on billing patterns. Read More

Aust Vet J 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Diagnostic Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 546 27, Greece.

A 13-year-old female neutered domestic short-hair cat was presented with chronic progressive vestibular ataxia, lethargy and anorexia. Clinical examination revealed bilateral mucopurulent nasal discharge. Neurological examination revealed obtundation, a right head tilt, ambulatory tetraparesis, generalised vestibular ataxia, decreased postural reactions in all limbs, right Horner's syndrome, spontaneous conjugate jerk rotatory nystagmus and right positional ventral strabismus. Read More

Biotribology (Oxf) 2021 Jun 19;26. Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, United States.

Biotribology is one of the key branches in the field of artificial joint development. Wear and corrosion are among fundamental processes which cause material loss in a joint biotribological system; the characteristics of wear and corrosion debris are central to determining the bioreactivity. Much effort has been made elucidating the debris-induced tissue responses. Read More

Front Med (Lausanne) 2021 22;8:645543. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

Statistical Service, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.

In Italy, during the first epidemic wave of 2020, the peak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality was reached at the end of March. Afterward, a progressive reduction was observed until much lower figures were reached during the summer, resulting from the contained circulation of SARS-CoV-2. This study aimed to determine if and how the pathological patterns of the individuals deceased from COVID-19 changed during the phases of epidemic waves in terms of: (i) main cause of death, (ii) comorbidities, and (iii) complications related to death. Read More