Notes

Profiling involving Brevetoxin Metabolites Created by Karenia brevis One hundred sixty five Based on Fluid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
Nanopores can serve as single molecule sensors. We exploited the MinION, a portable nanopore device from Oxford Nanopore Technologies, and repurposed it to detect any DNA/RNA oligo (target) in a complex mixture by conducting voltage-driven ion-channel measurements. The detection and quantitation of the target is enabled by the use of a unique complementary probe. Using a validated labeling technology, probes are tagged with a bulky Osmium tag (Osmium tetroxide 2,2'-bipyridine), in a way that preserves strong hybridization between probe and target. Intact oligos traverse the MinION's nanopore relatively quickly compared to the device's acquisition rate, and exhibit count of events comparable to the baseline. Counts are reported by a publicly available software, OsBp_detect. Due to the presence of the bulky Osmium tag, probes traverse more slowly, produce multiple counts over the baseline, and are even detected at single digit attomole (amole) range. In the presence of the target the probe is "silenced". Silencing is attributed to a 11 double stranded (ds) complex that does not fit and cannot traverse this nanopore. This ready-to-use platform can be tailored as a diagnostic test to meet the requirements for point-of-care cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) and microRNA (miRNA) detection and quantitation in body fluids.Catalyzed diesel particulate filters (CDPFs) have been widespread used as a technically and economically feasible mean for meeting increasingly stringent emissions limits. An important issue affecting the performance of a CDPF is its aging with using time. In this paper, the effects of noble metal loadings, regions and using mileage on the aging performance of a CDPF were investigated by methods of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and catalytic activity evaluation. Results showed that aging of the CDPF shifted the XRD characteristic diffraction peaks towards larger angles and increased the crystallinity, showing a slowing downward trend with the increase of the noble metal loadings. In addition, the increase of the noble metal loading would slow down the decline of Pt and Pt4+ concentration caused by aging. The characteristic temperatures of CO, C3H8 conversion and NO2 production increased after aging, and the more the noble metal loadings, the higher the range of the increase. But noticeably, excessive amounts of noble metals would not present the corresponding anti-aging properties. Specifically, the degree of aging in the inlet region was the deepest, the following is the outlet region, and the middle region was the smallest, which were also reflected in the increase range of crystallinity, characteristic temperatures of CO, C3H8 conversion and NO2 production, as well as the decrease range of Pt and Pt4+ concentrations. The increase of aging mileage reduced the size of the aggregates of the soot and ash in CDPFs, however, improved the degree of tightness between particles. Meanwhile Carbon (C) concentration in the soot and ash increased with the aging mileage.While the importance of the circadian system to health and well-being is extensively studied, the role of daylight exposure in these interactions is relatively poorly understood. Here we show, using a diurnal animal model naturally exposed to daylight, that daily morning exposure to 3000 lux, full spectrum electric light has beneficial health effects. Compared with controls, sand rats (Psammomys obesus) subjected to morning light treatment demonstrate daily rhythms with high peak to trough difference in activity, blood glucose levels and per2 gene expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, pre-frontal cortex, kidney and liver. The treated animals were also healthier, being normoglycemic, having higher glucose tolerance, lower body and heart weight and lower anxiety- and depression-like behavior. Our results suggest that exposure to high intensity light is important for the proper function of the circadian system and well-being, and are important in face of human's low exposure to daylight and extensive use of artificial light at night.Solubility prediction remains a critical challenge in drug development, synthetic route and chemical process design, extraction and crystallisation. Here we report a successful approach to solubility prediction in organic solvents and water using a combination of machine learning (ANN, SVM, RF, ExtraTrees, Bagging and GP) and computational chemistry. Rational interpretation of dissolution process into a numerical problem led to a small set of selected descriptors and subsequent predictions which are independent of the applied machine learning method. These models gave significantly more accurate predictions compared to benchmarked open-access and commercial tools, achieving accuracy close to the expected level of noise in training data (LogS ± 0.7). Finally, they reproduced physicochemical relationship between solubility and molecular properties in different solvents, which led to rational approaches to improve the accuracy of each models.The prognosis of a patient with COVID-19 pneumonia is uncertain. Our objective was to establish a predictive model of disease progression to facilitate early decision-making. A retrospective study was performed of patients admitted with COVID-19 pneumonia, classified as severe (admission to the intensive care unit, mechanic invasive ventilation, or death) or non-severe. A predictive model based on clinical, laboratory, and radiological parameters was built. The probability of progression to severe disease was estimated by logistic regression analysis. Calibration and discrimination (receiver operating characteristics curves and AUC) were assessed to determine model performance. During the study period 1152 patients presented with SARS-CoV-2 infection, of whom 229 (19.9%) were admitted for pneumonia. During hospitalization, 51 (22.3%) progressed to severe disease, of whom 26 required ICU care (11.4); 17 (7.4%) underwent invasive mechanical ventilation, and 32 (14%) died of any cause. Five predictors determined within 24 h of admission were identified Diabetes, Age, Lymphocyte count, SaO2, and pH (DALSH score). The prediction model showed a good clinical performance, including discrimination (AUC 0.87 CI 0.81, 0.92) and calibration (Brier score = 0.11). Isobutylmethylxanthine In total, 0%, 12%, and 50% of patients with severity risk scores ≤ 5%, 6-25%, and > 25% exhibited disease progression, respectively. A risk score based on five factors predicts disease progression and facilitates early decision-making according to prognosis.Increases in rainfall, continental runoff, and atmospheric dust deposition are reducing water transparency in lakes worldwide (i.e. higher attenuation Kd). Also, ongoing alterations in multiple environmental drivers due to global change are unpredictably impacting phytoplankton responses and lakes functioning. Although both issues demand urgent research, it remains untested how the interplay between Kd and multiple interacting drivers affect primary productivity (Pc). We manipulated four environmental drivers in an in situ experiment-quality of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR), nutrient concentration (Nut), CO2 partial pressure (CO2), and light regime (Mix)-to determine how the Pc of nine freshwater phytoplankton communities, found along a Kd gradient in Mediterranean ecosystems, changed as the number of interacting drivers increased. Our findings indicated that UVR was the dominant driver, its effect being between 3-60 times stronger, on average, than that of any other driver tested. Also, UVR had the largest difference in driver magnitude of all the treatments tested. A future UVR × CO2 × Mix × Nut scenario exerted a more inhibitory effect on Pc as the water column became darker. However, the magnitude of this synergistic effect was 40-60% lower than that exerted by double and triple interactions and by UVR acting independently. These results illustrate that although future global-change conditions could reduce Pc in Mediterranean lakes, multiple interacting drivers can temper the impact of a severely detrimental driver (i.e. UVR), particularly as the water column darkens.Although the cardiotoxic effects of cocaine are universally recognized, the association between cocaine and cardiomyopathy and/or heart failure is poorly understood. To conduct a comprehensive review and meta-analysis on the association between cocaine, heart failure, and cardiomyopathy, we first conducted a broad-term search in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus for human studies containing primary data on the relationship between cocaine and heart failure or cardiomyopathy. We were interested in studies with data beyond acute coronary syndromes. Retrieved studies were grouped into different categories based on possible hypotheses to test by meta-analysis. A second search with specific terms was then conducted. For grouped studies with sufficient clinical and methodological homogeneity, effect sizes were calculated and combined for meta-analysis by the Random Effects model. There is in general a need for more primary data studies that investigate heart failure and/or cardiomyopathy in cocaine users for mechanisms independent of ischemia. There were, however, enough studies to combine by meta-analyses that showed that chronic cocaine use is associated with anatomical and functional changes more consistent with diastolic heart failure instead of the commonly taught dilated cardiomyopathy pathway. In patients without a history of ACS, chronic cocaine use was not associated with significantly reduced EF. The few studies on acute cocaine had conflicting results on whether single-dose intravascular cocaine results in acute heart failure. Studies identified that included beta-blockade therapy in cocaine users with cardiac disease suggest that beta-blockers are not unsafe and that may be effective in the treatment of cocaine-associated heart failure. Chronic cocaine use is associated with anatomical and physiological changes of the heart muscle that are potentially reversible with beta-blockade therapy.Quantum cascade lasers (QCL) have revolutionized the generation of mid-infrared light. Yet, the ultrafast carrier transport in mid-infrared QCLs has so far constituted a seemingly insurmountable obstacle for the formation of ultrashort light pulses. Here, we demonstrate that careful quantum design of the gain medium and control over the intermode beat synchronization enable transform-limited picosecond pulses from QCL frequency combs. Both an interferometric radio-frequency technique and second-order autocorrelation shed light on the pulse dynamics and confirm that mode-locked operation is achieved from threshold to rollover current. Furthermore, we show that both anti-phase and in-phase synchronized states exist in QCLs. Being electrically pumped and compact, mode-locked QCLs pave the way towards monolithically integrated non-linear photonics in the molecular fingerprint region beyond 6 μm wavelength.Lung transplantation remains the best treatment option for end-stage lung disease; however, is limited by a shortage of donor grafts. Ex situ lung perfusion, also known as ex vivo lung perfusion, has been shown to allow for the safe evaluation and reconditioning of extended criteria donor lungs, increasing donor utilization. Negative pressure ventilation ex situ lung perfusion has been shown, preclinically, to result in less ventilator-induced lung injury than positive pressure ventilation. Here we demonstrate that, in a single-arm interventional study (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT03293043) of 12 extended criteria donor human lungs, negative pressure ventilation ex situ lung perfusion allows for preservation and evaluation of donor lungs with all grafts and patients surviving to 30 days and recovered to discharge from hospital. This trial also demonstrates that ex situ lung perfusion is safe and feasible with no patients demonstrating primary graft dysfunction scores grade 3 at 72 h or requiring post-operative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
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