Notes

Corneal higher-order aberrations after cataract medical procedures: Handbook phacoemulsification compared to femtosecond-laser aided strategy.
Finally, we discuss commercially available peptide-based antimicrobials and antimicrobial peptides in clinical trials.Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a considerable health burden worldwide and a major contributor to cancer-related deaths. HCC is often not noticed until at an advanced stage where treatment options are limited and current systemic drugs can usually only prolong survival for a short time. Understanding the biology and pathology of HCC is a challenge, due to the cellular and anatomic complexities of the liver. While not yet fully understood, liver cancer stem cells play a central role in the initiation and progression of HCC and in resistance to drugs. There are approximately twenty Ca2+-signaling proteins identified as potential targets for therapeutic treatment at different stages of HCC. These potential targets include inhibition of the self-renewal properties of liver cancer stem cells; HCC initiation and promotion by hepatitis B and C and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (principally involving reduction of reactive oxygen species); and cell proliferation, tumor growth, migration and metastasis. A few of these Ca2+-signaling pathways have been identified as targets for natural products previously known to reduce HCC. Promising Ca2+-signaling targets include voltage-operated Ca2+ channel proteins (liver cancer stem cells), inositol trisphosphate receptors, store-operated Ca2+ entry, TRP channels, sarco/endoplasmic reticulum (Ca2++Mg2+) ATP-ase and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases. However, none of these Ca2+-signaling targets has been seriously studied any further than laboratory research experiments. The future application of more systematic studies, including genomics, gene expression (RNA-seq), and improved knowledge of the fundamental biology and pathology of HCC will likely reveal new Ca2+-signaling protein targets and consolidate priorities for those already identified.Heated tobacco products (HTPs) were first introduced in Korea in June 2017. This study examined the prevalence of current HTP use among Korean adolescents and its association with conventional cigarette (CC) or electronic cigarette (EC) use. The study analyzed nationally representative data (the 2019 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey) from a sample of 57,303 Korean students from grades 7-12. Multinomial logistic regression models were designed to evaluate the association between EC or CC use and HTP use. A total of 2.6% of respondents were current HTP users and 95.9% of them were dual or triple users of CC or EC. The likelihood of HTP use was higher among current CC or EC users and highest among dual users. When the association between each tobacco product and current HTP use was analyzed, the dual use tendency of HTPs and other products steadily increased with the increase of CC or EC smoking frequency. Adolescents who use ECs and/or CCs are likely to use HTPs. Thus, HTPs could be a new public health concern for adolescents in terms of dual or triple use patterns of CC or EC.The pigment of riceberry rice has been reported to contain anthocyanins which act as a free radical scavenger and inhibitor of carbohydrate digestive enzymes. Since the probiotic yogurt incorporated with the pigment of riceberry rice extract was previously developed, the present study was aimed to investigate the acute effect of riceberry rice yogurt consumption on postprandial glycemic response, antioxidant capacity, and subjective ratings in healthy adults. In a cross-over design, 19 healthy participants were randomized to consume 350 g of yogurt supplemented with 0.25% (w/w) riceberry rice extract or the control yogurt. Postprandial plasma glucose, antioxidant status, and subjective ratings were measured at fasting and intervals (0-3 h) after ingestion of yogurt. The primary outcome was glycemic response; the secondary outcomes were plasma antioxidant capacity. In comparison to the yogurt control, riceberry rice yogurt reduced plasma glucose concentration after 30 min of consumption. The incremental area uel and improved plasma antioxidant capacity in healthy volunteers.Global obesity as a major public health problem has increased at pandemic rate, with men often outpacing women. Survey data show that the overall prevalence of obesity is higher among women than men, yet in high-income developed countries, the prevalence of overweight is higher among men than women. The differential impact of different economic stages has prompted research in transition economies such as China. Using an instrumental variable approach based on a sample of 13,574 individuals from nine provinces in the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP), we find a 7% excess-weight premium in wages for overweight men and a 4.6% penalty for overweight women, compared to their healthy-weight peers. We also find an inverse u-shaped association between the body mass index (BMI) and logarithm of monthly income for men, with an implied optimum above the threshold of obesity, while women are better off the slimmer they are. The excess-weight premium in wages for Chinese urban men might be associated with entrenched business practices of excessive dining and drinking associated with senior positions. Policies aimed at reducing obesity in China must be adapted to its unique sociocultural context in order to have gender-differentiated effects.Canine and human osteosarcomas (OSA) share similarities. Novel therapies are necessary for these tumours. The Bacillus anthracis toxin was reengineered to target and kill cells with high expressions of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). Since canine OSA express MMPs and uPA, we assessed whether the reengineered toxin could show efficacy against these tumours. Two OSA cell lines (canine D17 and human MG63) and a non-neoplastic canine osteoblastic cell line (COBS) were used. Cells were treated with different concentrations of the reengineered anthrax toxin and cell viability was quantified using MTT assay. The cell cycle, apoptosis, and necrosis were analysed by flow cytometry. The wound-healing assay was performed to quantify the migration capacity of treated cells. D17 and MG63 cells had significantly decreased viability after 24 h of treatment. Cell cycle analysis revealed that OSA cells underwent apoptosis when treated with the toxin, whereas COBS cells arrested in the G1 phase. The wound-healing assay showed that D17 and MG63 cells had a significantly reduced migration capacity after treatment. These results point for the first time towards the in vitro inhibitory effects of the reengineered anthrax toxin on OSA cells; this reengineered toxin could be further tested as a new therapy for OSA.The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...].Suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in the world. Of all deaths from suicide, 22% can be attributed to the use of alcohol, which means that every fifth suicide would not occur if alcohol were not consumed by the population. People under the influence of alcohol choose more radical and effective methods of dying by suicide, e.g., throwing themselves under a moving vehicle, such as a train. The presented analysis aimed to determine important risk factors affecting railway suicide in Poland and their relation to the state of alcohol intoxication of the victims, and the relationship between ethyl alcohol consumption and the phenomenon of suicide. Documentation obtained from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw, in the form of death registers and forensic medical records concerning examination and autopsy, was analyzed. This made it possible to identify suicide victims from among pedestrian victims of railway accidents recorded during the period under study. Thesary to improve the system of reporting railway suicides, as only reliable statistics provide the possibility of assessing both the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of actions taken.We report a novel self-referenced diffraction-based leaky waveguide (LW) comprising a thin (~2 µm) film of a photofunctionalisable hydrogel created by covalent attachment of a biotinylated photocleavable linker to chitosan. Streptavidin attached to the chitosan via the photocleavable linker was selectively removed by shining 365 nm light through a photomask to create an array of strips with high and low loading of the protein, which served as sensor and reference regions respectively. The differential measurements between sensor and reference regions were used for measuring analytes (i.e., biotin protein A and IgG) while reducing environmental and non-specific effects. These include changes in temperature and sample composition caused by non-adsorbing and adsorbing species, leading to reduction in effects by ~98%, ~99%, and ~97% respectively compared to the absolute measurements. The novelty of this work lies in combining photofunctionalisable hydrogels with diffraction-based LWs for referencing. This is needed to realise the full potential of label-free optical biosensors to measure analyte concentrations in real samples that are complex mixtures, and to allow for sample analysis outside of laboratories where drifts and fluctuations in temperature are observed.The development and validation of different types of molecular markers is crucial to conducting marker-assisted sesame breeding. Insertion-deletion (InDel) markers are highly polymorphic and suitable for low-cost gel-based genotyping. From this perspective, this study aimed to discover and develop InDel markers through bioinformatic analysis of double digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (ddRADSeq) data from 95 accessions belonging to the Mediterranean sesame core collection. Bioinformatic analysis indicated the presence of 7477 InDel positions genome wide. Deletions accounted for 61% of the InDels and short deletions (1-2 bp) were the most abundant type (94.9%). On average, InDels of at least 2 bp in length had a frequency of 2.99 InDels/Mb. The 86 InDel sites having length ≥8 bp were detected in genome-wide analysis. These regions can be used for the development of InDel markers considering low-cost genotyping with agarose gels. In order to validate these InDels, a total of 38 InDel regions were selected and primers were successfully amplified. About 13% of these InDels were in the coding sequences (CDSs) and in the 3'- and 5'- untranslated regions (UTRs). Furthermore, the efficiencies of these 16 InDel markers were assessed on 32 sesame accessions. The polymorphic information content (PIC) of these 16 markers ranged from 0.06 to 0.62 (average 0.33). These results demonstrated the success of InDel identification and marker development for sesame with the use of ddRADSeq data. These agarose-resolvable InDel markers are expected to be useful for sesame breeders.Persons experiencing disabilities often face difficulties to establish and maintain intimate partnerships and the decision whether to live alone or with others is often not their own to make. This study investigates whether individual and country-level characteristics predict the partnership status and the living situation of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) from 22 countries. We used data from 12,591 participants of the International SCI Community Survey (InSCI) and regressed partnership status and living situation on individual (sociodemographic and injury characteristics) and country-level characteristics (Human Development Index, HDI) using multilevel models. Females, younger persons, those with lower income, without paid work, more severe injuries, and longer time since injury were more often single. Males, older persons, those with higher income, paid work, less severe injuries, and those from countries with higher HDI more often lived alone. This study provides initial evidence for the claim that the partnership status and the living situation of people with SCI are influenced by sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors and are not merely a matter of choice, in particular for those with severe injuries.
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