Notes

Spin-Orbit Natural Move Orbitals and Spin-Forbidden Shifts.
Khat (Catha edulis) chewing is widespread in the region of East Africa. Even low levels of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in khat could induce public health concern. In a market-based study, from five popular khat varieties, a total of 35 composite khat samples were analyzed for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its main transformation products, and four hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers. Extraction was carried out by quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe method (QuEChERS). OCP concentrations were determined by head space solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). Every sample contained β-HCH above the maximum residue limit set by the European Commission. For total DDT, this was the case for 25.7% of the samples. The ratios of (p,p'-DDD + p,p'-DDE) to p,p'-DDT were less than one for 85% of khat samples, demonstrating recent use of DDT in khat farmlands. Conversely, the ratio of β-HCH to total HCH varied from 0.56 to 0.96, implying historical input of technical HCH. Assuming a daily chewable portion of 100 g, dietary intakes of p,p'-DDT, total DDT and total HCH by adults ranged from 3.12 to 57.9, 6.49 to 80.2 and 39.2 to 51.9 ng (kg body weight)-1 day-1, respectively. Bafilomycin A1 clinical trial These levels are below acceptable levels suggested by international organizations. Chewing khat showed lower non-cancer health risk, but showed relatively higher cancer risk in terms of OCPs. Because khat is chewed without being subjected to any treatment, uncertainties associated with estimated intakes and health risks should be low. Therefore, this practice is of great concern.
Lipidomic profiling allows 100s if not 1000s of lipids in a sample to be detected and quantified. Modern lipidomics techniques are ultra-sensitive assays that enable the discovery of novel biomarkers in a variety of fields and provide new insight in mechanistic investigations. Despite much progress in lipidomics, there remains, as for all high throughput "omics" strategies, the need to develop strategies to standardize and integrate quality control into studies in order to enhance robustness, reproducibility, and usability of studies within specific fields and beyond.

We aimed to understand how much results from lipid profiling in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans are influenced by different culture conditions in different laboratories.

In this work we have undertaken an inter-laboratory study, comparing the lipid profiles of N2 wild type C. elegans and daf-2(e1370) mutants lacking a functional insulin receptor. Sample were collected from worms grown in four separate laboratories under standardized growth conditions. We used an UPLC-UHR-ToF-MS system allowing chromatographic separation before MS analysis.

We found common qualitative changes in several marker lipids in samples from the individual laboratories. On the other hand, even in this controlled experimental system, the exact fold-changes for each marker varied between laboratories.

Our results thus reveal a serious limitation to the reproducibility of current lipid profiling experiments and reveal challenges to the integration of such data from different laboratories.
Our results thus reveal a serious limitation to the reproducibility of current lipid profiling experiments and reveal challenges to the integration of such data from different laboratories.In the present study, we used a computational and experimental study in a 3D liver tumor model (LTM) to explore the tumor ablation enhancement of irreversible electroporation (IRE) by pre-heating with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and elucidate the mechanism whereby this enhancement occurs. Three ablation protocols, including IRE alone, RFA45 → IRE (with the pre-heating temperature of 45 °C), and RFA60 → IRE (with the pre-heating temperature of 60 °C) were investigated. Both the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of the 3D LTM were characterized with the change in the pre-heating temperature. The results showed, compared to IRE alone, a significant increase in the tumor ablation volume (19.59 [Formula see text] 0.61 vs. 15.29 ± 0.61 mm3, p = 0.002 and 22.87 [Formula see text] 0.35 vs. 15.29 ± 0.61 mm3, p less then 0.001) was observed with both RFA45 → IRE and RFA60 → IRE, leading to a decrease in lethal electric filed strength (8 and 17%, correspondingly). The mechanism can be attributed to the change of cell microenvironment by pre-heating and/or a synergistic effect of RFA and IRE. The proposed enhancing method might contribute to the improvement of interventional oncology in the treatment of large tumors close to critical organs (e.g., large blood vessels and bile ducts).Hepatobiliary interventions are regarded as difficult minimally-invasive procedures that require experience and skills of physicians. To facilitate the surgical training, we develop a soft, high-fidelity and durable liver phantom with detailed morphology. The phantom is anatomically accurate and feasible for the multi-modality medical imaging, including computer tomography (CT), ultrasound, and endoscopy. The CT results show that the phantom resembles the detailed anatomy of real livers including the biliary ducts, with a spatial root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.7 ± 0.7 mm and 0.9 ± 0.2 mm for the biliary duct and the liver outer shape, respectively. The sonographic signals and the endoscopic appearance highly mimic those of the real organ. An electric sensing system was developed for the real-time quantitative tracking of the transhepatic puncturing needle. The fabrication method herein is accurate and reproducible, and the needle tracking system offers a robust and general approach to evaluate the centesis outcome.Pain is the most common symptom reported by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) even after the resolution of chronic joint inflammation. It is believed that RA-associated pain is not solely due to inflammation, but could also be attributed to aberrant modifications to the central nervous system. The P2X4 receptor (P2X4R) is an ATP-activated purinergic receptor that plays a significant role in the transmission of information in the nervous system and pain. The involvement of P2X4R during the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain is well-established. The attenuation of this receptor alleviates disease pathogenesis and related symptoms, including hyperalgesia and allodynia. Although some studies have revealed the contribution of P2X4R in promoting joint inflammation in RA, how it implicates pain associated with RA at peripheral and central nervous systems is still lacking. In this review, the possible contributions of P2X4R in the nervous system and how it implicates pain transmission and responses were examined.
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