Notes

Sequence-based keying in recognition with the story HLA-B*27:226 alternative allele in the Oriental household.
Using data gathered from OOAC developers and end-users, we identified prevalent challenges faced by the community, strategic trends and requirements driving OOAC technology development, and existing technological bottlenecks that could be outsourced or leveraged by active collaborations with academia.Rare earth elements (REEs) or "technology metals" were coined by the U.S. Department of Energy, a group of seventeen elements found in the Earth's crust. These chemical elements are vital and irreplaceable to the world of technology owing to their unique physical, chemical, and light-emitting properties, all of which are beneficial in modern healthcare, telecommunication, and defense. Rare earth elements are relatively abundant in Earth's crust, with critical qualities to the device performance. The reuse and recycling of rare earth elements through different technologies can minimize impacts on the environment; however, there is insufficient data about their biological, bioaccumulation, and health effects. The increasing usage of rare earth elements has raised concern about environmental toxicity, which may further cause harmful effects on human health. The study aims to review the toxicity analysis of these rare earth elements concerning aquatic biota, considering it to be the sensitive indicator of the environment. Based on the limited reports of REE effects, the review highlights the need for more detailed studies on the hormetic effects of REEs. Aquatic biota is a cheap, robust, and efficient platform to study REEs' toxicity, mobility of REEs, and biomagnification in water bodies. REEs' diverse effects on aquatic life forms have been observed due to the lack of safety limits and extensive use in the various sectors. In accordance with the available data, we have put in efforts to compile all the relevant research results in this paper related to the topic "toxicity effect of REEs on aquatic life".The high-precision mapping of urban health risk is a difficult problem due to the high heterogeneity of the urban environment. In this paper, the spatial distribution characteristics of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) content in the urban soil of Shenzhen City were analyzed through a field investigation. We propose an approach for improving the accuracy and spatial resolution of PAH carcinogenic risk assessment by integrating the pollutant distribution and Location Based Service (LBS) data. The results showed that the concentration of PAHs in the high-density urban area was 271.67 ng g-1, which was 27.2% higher than that in the green area. Although the average carcinogenic risk of PAHs in the surface soil of Shenzhen city was less than 10-6, the maximum carcinogenic risk at some sample sites exceeded 10-6, which indicates a potential health risk. The LBS data were effective for high-precision mapping of the population distribution. According to the combination relationship between the risk threshold of pollutants and the population density, four types of risk zones were proposed. Among them, 6.9% of the areas had a high-risk and high population density and 15.8% of the areas were high-risk with a low population density. These two kinds of zones were the critical areas for controlling risk. The fine-scale risk mapping approach for determining the carcinogenic risk of soil PAHs integrating pollutant distribution and location based service data was demonstrated to be a useful tool for explicit spatial risk management. This tool could provide spatial insights and decision support for urban health-risk management and pollution prevention.The irradiation of silver-to-sodium ion-exchanged glass with 1.06-μm nanosecond laser pulses of mJ-range energy results in the formation of silver nanoparticles under the glass surface. Following chemical removal of ~25-nm glass layer reveals a pattern of nanoparticles capable of surface enhancement of Raman scattering (SERS). The pattern formed when laser pulses are more than half-overlapped provides up to ~105 enhancement and uniform SERS signal distribution, while the decrease of the pulse overlap results in an order of magnitude higher but less uniform enhancement.Endothelial dysfunction is recognized as one of the leading factors in the pathogenesis of diseases of the central nervous system of various etiologies. Numerous studies have shown the role of hyperhomocysteinemia in the development of endothelial dysfunction and the prothrombogenic state. The most important condition in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) is a dysregulation of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and transendothelial leukocyte migration. It has been proven that homocysteine also contributes to the damage of neurons by the mechanism of excitotoxicity and the induction of the apoptosis of neurons. These processes can be one of the factors of neurodegenerative brain damage, which plays a leading role in the progression of MS. This review describes the pleiotropic effect of homocysteine on these processes and its role in MS pathogenesis.Peptides are naturally produced by all organisms and exhibit a wide range of physiological, immunomodulatory, and wound healing functions. Furthermore, they can provide with protection against microorganisms and tumor cells. Their multifaceted performance, high selectivity, and reduced toxicity have positioned them as effective therapeutic agents, representing a positive economic impact for pharmaceutical companies. Currently, efforts have been made to invest in the development of new peptides with antimicrobial and anticancer properties, but the poor stability of these molecules in physiological environments has triggered a bottleneck. Therefore, some tools, such as nanotechnology and in silico approaches can be applied as alternatives to try to overcome these obstacles. In silico studies provide a priori knowledge that can lead to the development of new anticancer peptides with enhanced biological activity and improved stability. This review focuses on the current status of research in peptides with dual antimicrobial-anticancer activity, including advances in computational biology using in silico analyses as a powerful tool for the study and rational design of these types of peptides.A growing number of developing countries have experienced worsening air pollution, which has been shown to cause significant health problems. However, few studies have explored the impact of air pollution on the mental health of university students, particularly in the Chinese context. In order to address this gap, through a large-scale cross-sectional survey, this study aims to examine the effects of air pollution on final-year Chinese university undergraduates' (due to graduate in 2020) mental health by employing multivariable logistic regression. Our findings show that, first, although normal air quality is not strongly associated with lower levels of negative mental health, there is a strong link between poor air quality and higher levels of negative mental health. More specifically, life satisfaction hedonic unhappiness and depression measured by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies' Depression scale (CES-D) are statistically associated with air pollution. In addition, we also found that gender is a significant factor, as males had more than 1.6 times greater odds of increased mental health problems compared to their female counterparts. Place of birth also plays a significant role in participants' mental health. Moreover, undergraduates with urban household registration experienced significant levels of hedonic unhappiness and depression on the CES-D scale. Finally, we found that there is an association between respondents' economic situation and their mental health too. Overall, this study contributes to the research on air pollution management and mental health intervention, particularly in relation to student groups. The undergraduate curriculum should provide more guidance and suggestions on promoting mental health and establishing positive attitudes to life and academic study of the final year students, under the context of air pollution in China.A major challenge in the development of bioanalytical methods is to achieve a rapid and robust quantification of disease biomarkers present at very low concentration levels in complex biological samples. An immunoassay platform is presented herein for ultrasensitive and fast detection of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a well-recognized cancer biomarker. A sandwich type immunosensor has been developed employing a detection antibody labeled with inorganic nanoparticles acting as tags for further indirect quantification of the analyte. The required high sensitivity is then achieved through a controlled gold deposition on the nanoparticle surface, carried out after completing the recognition step of the immunoassay, thus effectively amplifying the size of the nanoparticles from nm to µm range. Due to such an amplification procedure, quantification of the biomolecule could be carried out directly on the immunoassay plates using confocal microscopy for measurement of the reflected light produced by gold-enlarged nanostructures. The high specificity of the immunoassay was demonstrated with the addition of a major abundant protein in serum (albumin) at much higher concentrations. An extremely low detection limit for PSA quantification (LOD of 1.1 fg·mL-1 PSA) has been achieved. Such excellent LOD is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than the clinically relevant PSA levels present in biological samples (4-10 ng·mL-1) and even to monitor eventual recurrence after clinical treatment of a prostate tumor (0.1 ng·mL-1). In fact, the broad dynamic range obtained (4 orders of magnitude) would allow the PSA quantification of diverse samples at very different relevant levels.There continues to be a reluctance to close the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in premature infants. The debate on whether the short-term outcomes translate to a difference in long-term benefits remains. This article intends to review the pulmonary vasculature changes that can occur with a chronic hemodynamically significant PDA in a preterm infant. It also explains the rationale and decision-making involved in a diagnostic cardiac catheterization and transcatheter PDA closure in these preterm infants.Leptospirosis, a zoonosis caused by pathogenic Leptospira, primarily affects tropical, developing regions, especially communities without adequate sanitation. Outbreaks of leptospirosis have been linked with the presence of pathogenic Leptospira in water. In this study, we measured the physicochemical characteristics (temperature, pH, salinity, turbidity, electrical conductivity, and total dissolved solids (TDS)) of surface waters from an urban slum in Salvador, Brazil, and analyzed their associations with the presence and concentration of pathogenic Leptospira reported previously. We built logistic and linear regression models to determine the strength of association between physicochemical parameters and the presence and concentration of Leptospira. We found that salinity, TDS, pH, and type of water were strongly associated with the presence of Leptospira. In contrast, only pH was associated with the concentration of the pathogen in water. The study of physico-chemical markers can contribute to a better understanding of the occurrence of Leptospira in water and to the identification of sources of risk in urban slum environments.
Read More: