Non-invasive optical imaging techniques, such as optical coherence tomography, are essential diagnostic tools in many disciplines, from the life sciences to nanotechnology. However, present methods are not able to image through opaque layers that scatter all the incident light. Even a very thin layer of a scattering material can appear ...

Context: Doxorubicin (Dox) is an anthracycline antibiotic used as anticancer agent. However, its use is limited due to its cardiotoxicity which is mainly attributed to accumulation of reactive oxygen species. Objective: This study was conducted to assess whether the antioxidant, proanthocyanidins (Pro) can ameliorate Dox-induced cardiotoxicity in rats. Materials and ...

Social representations in later medieval culture have attracted little attention amongst psychologists, pre-dating the development of the so-called 'public sphere' in the eighteenth century. In addition, the association of pre-modern societies with 'traditional' modes of communication in social psychology places implicit limits on areas that may be studied through the ...

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is generally accepted to be a T cell-mediated chronic inflammatory disease with an unclear pathogenesis. There have been numerous studies on the proliferation and apoptosis of T cells in situ. In contrast, research on the proliferation and apoptosis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in patients ...

Solvent extraction studies of actinide metal ions such as Am(iii), U(vi), Np(iv), Np(vi), Pu(iv) were carried out in a nitric acid medium using two diamides (L) viz. (DMDBTDMA (N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-dibutyl-2-tetradecylmalonamide) and DMDOHEMA (N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-dioctyl-2-(2'-(hexyloxy)ethyl)-malonamide) dissolved in different room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). The use of RTILs as the diluent significantly enhanced metal ...

This study aimed to develop a modified technique for spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) transplantation with the aid of an operating microscope in an infertile mouse model. Male neonatal C57BL/6 (B6) mice served as SSC donors. SSCs labeled with the PKH26-GL marker were detected by flow cytometry to verify purity. Adult ...

In the present work, we examined associations between oppressive, sexist beliefs and consideration of cosmetic surgery for oneself and also endorsement of cosmetic surgery for one's romantic partner. A total of 554 German-speaking volunteers from the community, mainly in Austria, completed measures of consideration of cosmetic surgery and three measures ...

Dried blood spots (DBS) technology has been introduced as a microsampling alternative to traditional plasma or serum sampling for pharmacokinetics or toxicokinetics evaluation. The application of DBS has been established for many small molecule drugs at discovery, nonclinical, and clinical stages. However, the application of DBS for large molecule therapeutics ...

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether levobupivacaine and tramadol wound infiltration decreases postoperative pain following Cesarean section and reduces the need for analgesics in the immediate post-delivery period. METHODS: Ninety patients (aged 18-40 years) scheduled for elective Cesarean section under general anesthesia were randomly allocated to ...

The present study examines whether breastfeeding is associated with neuro-developmental advantages at 9 months of age on a standardised measure of infant development in a large cohort study of Irish children. It is hypothesised that if breast-milk confers an independent benefit, infants who were never breastfed will have reached fewer ...

In an era of increased cardiovascular disease burden in the ageing population, there is great demand for devices that come in to contact with the blood such as heart valves, stents, and bypass grafts that offer life saving treatments. Nitric oxide (NO) elution from healthy endothelial tissue that lines the ...

In this cross-sectional study, we compared levels of adaptive functioning and examined potential correlates of adaptive functioning in 18 pediatric intestine (ITX) and 22 liver (LTX) recipients transplanted between June 2003 and March 2009. Family caregivers completed the ABAS-II scale and provided socio-demographic information regarding recipients' age at transplantation, gender, ...

The aim of this study is to explain the social networks of the backyard chicken in Ratchaburi, Suphan Buri and Nakhon Pathom Provinces. In this study, we designed the nodes as groups of persons or places involved in activities relating to backyard chickens. The ties are all activities related to ...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the factors related to quality of life for patients with type 2 diabetes with or without depressive symptoms in China. BACKGROUND: In patients with type 2 diabetes with or without depressive symptoms, different factors such as gender, social context or regional setting may affect their ...

High proliferation rates are characteristic of cancer, and proliferation markers make up the majority of genes included in RNA-based prognostic gene signatures applied for breast cancer patients. Based on prior data on differences in molecular subgroups of breast cancer, we hypothesized that the significance of single proliferation markers might differ ...

Four new compounds (+)-jasminoids A (1), B (2), C (3), and D (4), together with seven known compounds, were isolated from the roots of Jasminum sambac. Their structures were identified using spectroscopic methods. This study provides a better understanding to the chemical composition of J. sambac roots that have been ...

In the United States, black/African American individuals are more likely than whites to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and have higher rates of complications, but are under-represented in clinical trials. The design of a trial comparing the efficacy and safety of the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor linagliptin 5 mg/day ...

The basal ganglia play a pivotal role in reward-oriented behavior. The striatum, an input channel of the basal ganglia, is composed of subdivisions that are topographically connected with different cortical and subcortical areas. To test whether reward information is differentially processed in the different parts of the striatum, we compared ...

A disintegrin and metalloprotease domain-containing protein 12 (ADAM12) is up-regulated in many human cancers and promotes cancer metastasis. Increased urinary level of ADAM-12 in breast and bladder cancers correlates with the disease progression. However, the mechanism of its induction in cancer remains less understood. Previously, we reported a Z-DNA forming ...

Müller cells are the major glia of the retina that serve numerous functions essential to retinal homeostasis, yet the contribution of Müller glial dysfunction to retinal diseases remains largely unknown. We have developed a transgenic model using a portion of the regulatory region of the retinaldehyde binding protein 1 gene ...

ABSTRACT: About 20% to 40% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will develop brain metastases during the natural course of their disease. The prognosis for such patients is very poor with limited survival. In addition to the standard whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), some studies have shown that ...

Atomic spectrometry remains one of the most powerful methods for the determination of the elements and their compounds in a wide variety of types of samples and in widely differing concentrations. Innovation in the optical methods being atomic absorption, atomic fluorescence, and atomic emission spectrometry mainly with plasma sources as ...

Phosphorylation-dependent protein-protein interaction has rarely been targeted in medicinal chemistry. Thymoquinone, a naturally occurring antitumor agent, disrupts pre-phosphorylated substrate recognition by the polo-box domain of polo-like kinase 1, a key mitotic regulator responsible for various carcinogenesis when over-expressed. Here, crystallographic studies reveal that the phosphoserine/phosphothreonine recognition site of the polo-box ...

The influence of glycemic load and related measures on survival among colon cancer patients remains largely unknown. We conducted a prospective, observational study of 1011 stage III colon cancer patients reporting dietary intake during and 6 months after participation in an adjuvant chemotherapy trial. We examined the influence of glycemic ...

Preterm birth is a major determinant of neonatal mortality and morbidity with approximately one third due to pre-labor rupture of membranes. Infection and inflammation have strong causal links to preterm delivery, resulting in the activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NFKB) and its downstream targets. Human sirtuin (SIRT) 6, which has ADP-ribosyl ...

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission results from infection with one or a small number of variants from the donor quasispecies. Transmitted/founder (T/F) viruses have recently been identified from acutely infected patients, but the way in which they interact with primary targets of HIV-1 infection is poorly understood. We ...

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are enzymes that charge specific tRNAs with their cognate amino acids and play an essential role in the initial steps of protein synthesis. Because these enzymes are attractive targets for drug development in many microorganisms, there is a pressing need for assays suitable for compound screening. We developed ...

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) isolated in neonatal late-onset sepsis are often antibiotic resistant. We analyzed CoNS from skin and feces of neonates during admission. Antibiotic resistance of skin isolates increased during admission, especially in Staphylococcus haemolyticus. Staphylococcus warneri showed low antibiotic resistance. Our data suggest dat different CoNS species may play ...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) such as benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants found in tobacco smoke, air pollution, and grilled foods. Prenatal exposure to BaP causes premature reproductive senescence in mice, and other PAHs are transplacental ovarian carcinogens. Glutathione (GSH) is critical for detoxification of the reactive metabolites of PAHs. ...

Ru(II)(arene) complexes have been shown to be promising anticancer agents, capable of overcoming major drawbacks of currently used chemotherapeutics. We have synthesized Ru(II)(η(6)-arene) compounds carrying bioactive flavonol ligands with the aim to obtain multi-targeted anticancer agents. In order to validate this concept, studies on the mode of action of the ...

The trophectoderm epithelium is the first differentiated cell layer to arise during mammalian development. Blastocyst formation requires the proper expression and localization of tight junction, polarity, ion gradient and H(2)O channel proteins in the outer cell membranes. However, the underlying transcriptional mechanisms that control their expression are largely unknown. Here, ...

Medicago truncatula is one of the most studied model plants. Nevertheless, the genome of this legume remains incompletely determined. We used RNA-Seq to characterize the transcriptome during the early organogenesis of the nodule and during its functioning. We detected 37,333 expressed transcription units (TUs), 1,670 had never been described before ...

Introduction:Cetuximab is a chimeric mouse-human (30:70) IgG1 monoclonal antibody that competitively inhibits the binding of epidermal growth factor. Cetuximab is generally well tolerated; however, hypersensitivity infusion reactions have been reported. The incidence at the University of Oklahoma was currently unknown, though anecdotally high. The purpose of this study was to ...

Bardoxolone methyl is an antioxidant inflammation modulator acting through induction of Keap1-Nrf2 pathway. Results from a recent phase IIb clinical trial reported that bardoxolone methyl was associated with improvement in the estimated GFR in patients with advanced CKD and type 2 diabetes. However, increases in albuminuria, serum transaminase, and frequency ...

BACKGROUND: Acamprosate has been found to enhance rates of complete abstinence and to increase percent days abstinent (PDA) from alcohol relative to placebo treatment. As most U.S. clinical trials of acamprosate have been conducted in alcohol and other drug specialty clinics, there is a need to examine the efficacy of ...

Benzoic acid (BA) derivatives of environmental relevance exhibit various photophysical and photochemical characteristics. Here, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is used to calculate photoexcitations of eight selected BAs and the results are compared with UV spectra determined experimentally. High-level gas phase EOM-CCSD calculations and experimental aqueous phase spectra were used ...

Context: Otostegia persica Boiss (Lamiaceae) contains antioxidant agents and is used in traditional medicine for treatment of diabetes mellitus complications. Objectives: The acute antihyperglycemic, antilipid peroxidation, and insulin secretory activities of methanol extract of O. persica aerial parts were investigated. Materials and methods: The extract [200, 300, 400 mg/kg body weight ...

The exceptional fossil sites of Cerro de los Batallones (Madrid Basin, Spain) contain abundant remains of Late Miocene mammals. From these fossil assemblages, we have inferred diet, resource partitioning and habitat of three sympatric carnivorous mammals based on stable isotopes. The carnivorans include three apex predators: two sabre-toothed cats (Felidae) ...

Molecule-sized fluorescent emitters are much sought-after to probe biomolecules in living cells. We demonstrate here by time-dependent density functional calculations that the experimentally achievable 1-2 nm sized silicon carbide nanocrystals can emit light in the near-infrared region after introducing appropriate color centers in them. These near-infrared luminescent silicon carbide nanocrystals ...

Abstract The triterpene chikusetsusaponin IVa was isolated from the fruit of Ilex paraguariensis. Using biochemical and pharmacological methods, we demonstrated that chikusetsusaponin IVa (1) prolongs the recalcification time, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, and thrombin time of normal human plasma in a dose-dependent manner, (2) inhibits the amidolytic activity ...

Abstract A 59-year-old female presented to our institution with paraparesis caused by medullar compression secondary to multiple myeloma. Spinal cord decompression and transpedicular spine fixation were performed. A month later, the patient complained of sudden pain in her middle back. A CT scan revealed screw impingement on the aortic wall ...

Modulation of electronic structures and surface properties of transparent carbon nanotube films is a challenging issue for their application in optoelectronic devices. Here, we report, for the first time, that graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets play the role of a p-doping agent and surface energy modifier of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based ...

Growth of a cubic nanoparticle was studied by classical molecular dynamics simulation for three seed sizes in nine different supersaturation ratios. Similar to the spherical seed in our previous study, for high supersaturation ratios, a two-stage phenomenon that consists of an initial heterogeneous growth around the seed and homogeneous nucleation ...

Although the human brain may have evolutionarily adapted to face-to-face communication, other modes of communication, e.g., telephone and e-mail, increasingly dominate our modern daily life. This study examined the neural difference between face-to-face communication and other types of communication by simultaneously measuring two brains using a hyperscanning approach. The results ...

Retention and use, without explicit parental permission, of residual dried blood samples from newborn screening has generated public controversy over concerns about violations of family privacy rights and loss of parental autonomy. The public debate about this issue has included little discussion about the destruction of a potentially valuable public ...

We designed and synthesized the three molecular tweezers 1 a-c(4+) containing an electron acceptor 4,4'-bipyridinium (BPY(2+) ) unit in each of the two arms and an (R)-2,2'-dioxy-1,1'-binaphthyl (BIN) unit that plays the role of chiral centre and the hinge of the structure. Each BPY(2+) unit is connected to the BIN hinge ...

We outline a simple approach involving instrument setup and calibration for the analysis of Hoechst dye 33342-loading in human cell lines for exploring heterogeneity in dye efflux efficiency and the status of side population (SP) A549 lung cancer cells. Dual excitation 488 nm/multiline UV (351-364 nm) flow cytometry was used ...

OBJECTIVES: Antimicrobial photodynamic inhibition (aPI) is based on the use of a light source and a photosensitizer to kill pathogens. Little is known about aPI of dermatophytic fungi and its mechanism of action. We aimed to evaluate aPI of Trichophyton rubrum. METHODS: We performed tests using toluidine blue (TBO) as ...

AIM: Hemoglobin (Hb) variability is associated with poor survival in patients with chronic kidney disease. Association of Hb variability after kidney transplantation with patients' and graft survival has not been adequetly studied. METHODS: This retrospective study used registry data to examine the association between Hb variability in the early post-transplant ...

Ambient desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (ADI-MS) is an attractive method for direct analysis with applications in homeland security, forensics, and human health. For example, low temperature plasma probe (LTP) ionization was successfully used to detect e.g. explosives, drugs, and pesticides directly on the target. Despite the fact that the field is ...