Method Development

Nanofiber-based hydrogels (NFHGs) prepared by the combination of traditional hydrogels and novel nanofibers have demonstrated great potential in various application fields, owing to their integrated advantages of superhydrophilicity, high water-holding capacity, good biocompatibility, enhanced mechanical strength, and excellent structural tenability. In this review, a comprehensive overview of the structure design and synthetic strategy of NFHGs derived from electrospinning technique, weaving, freeze-drying, 3D printing, and molecular self-assembling method is provided...

Introduction The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection can cause transmission clusters and high mortality in hemodialysis facilities. We attempted to develop a risk-prediction model to assess the early risk of MERS-CoV infection in dialysis patients. Methods This two-center retrospective cohort study included 104 dialysis patients who were suspected of MERS-CoV infection and diagnosed with rRT-PCR between September 2012 and June 2016 at King Fahd General Hospital in Jeddah and King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh...

The present study assessed the motivation level of nurses working in 3 highly decorated tertiary-level government hospitals of India and also underpins the factors attributing to motivation levels. A sequential mixed-method design was used in this study wherein 400 nurses working in 5 units of nursing care in the hospitals were enrolled based upon proportionate random stratified sampling techniques. A self-administered questionnaire with Likert scale was developed based upon scale used by Mbindyo et al. The attributes of motivation were then categorized into external and internal attributes...

We have demonstrated the rapid electron transfer in homo- and hetero-complexes composed of the parent perylenediimide (PDI, PH) and pyrrolidine-substituted PDI (PN) in DNA analyzed by steady-state fluorescence and femtosecond transient absorption measurements. The DNA molecules possessing PH and PN were prepared by our recently developed method using the reaction of enzymatically-generated abasic sites, by which the PDI molecules can be incorporated as base surrogates within the DNA base stack. The melting temperature analysis showed that the PH and PN monomer, and their homo- and heterodimers can contribute to the stabilization of the DNA duplex...

BACKGROUND: Bacterial contamination of platelet concentrates (PCs) is still a major challenge in transfusion medicine. Different methodologic concepts and screening strategies have been developed and investigated concerning their usability. We evaluated the feasibility of BacT/ALERT automated culture (BacT/A, bioMérieux) with late sampling after 3 days at the earliest. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Twenty-four bacterial strains isolated from PCs and six relevant strains from reference stocks were spiked into apheresis-derived PCs (10-60 colony-forming units [CFU]/bag)...

The effects of anthropogenic global environmental change on biotic and abiotic processes have been reported in aquatic systems across the world. Complex synergies between concurrent environmental stressors and the resilience of the system to regime shifts, which vary in space and time, determine the capacity for marine systems to maintain structure and function with global environmental change. Consequently, an interdisciplinary approach that facilitates the development of new methods for the exchange of knowledge between scientists across multiple scales is required to effectively understand, quantify and predict climate impacts on marine ecosystem services...

A new microwave assisted extraction (MAE) method using ethanol as solvent has been optimized by means of a Box-Behnken experimental design for the enhanced extraction of bioactive terpenoids from Mentha rotundifolia leaves; 100°C, 5 min, 1.125 g dry sample:10 mL solvent and a single extraction cycle were selected as optimal conditions. Improved performance of MAE method in terms of extraction yield and/or reproducibility over conventional solid-liquid extraction and ultrasound assisted extraction was also previously assessed...

Reduction methods for preparation of coordination complexes of titanium(II) and indium(III) phthalocyanines with organic dyes such as indigo, thioindigo and squarylium dye III (SQ) have been developed which allow one to obtain crystalline {cryptand(K+)}{(cis-indigo-O,O)(0)Ti(II)[Pc(2-)}(Cl-).C6H4Cl2 (1), {cryptand(K+)}{(cis-thioindigo-O, O)(2-)In(III)[Pc(2-)]}(-).C6H4Cl2 (2) and {cryptand(K+)}{[(SQ)2-O, O](2-)In(III)[Pc(2-)]}(-).3.5C6H4Cl2 (3) complexes. The formation of these complexes is accompanied by the reduction of starting dyes or metal phthalocyanines...

The breakthrough curve obtained from a single-well push-pull test can be adjusted to account for dilution of the injection fluid in the aquifer fluid. The dilution-adjusted breakthrough curve can be analyzed to estimate the reaction rate of a solute. The conventional dilution-adjusted method assumes that the ratio of the concentrations of the non-reactive and reactive solutes in the injection fluid versus the aquifer fluid are equal. If this assumption is invalid, the conventional method will generate inaccurate breakthrough curves and may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the reactivity of a solute...

In this study, we analyzed hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) in urine of both PCB transport workers and PCB researchers. A method to monitor OH-PCB in urine was developed. Urine was solid-phase extracted with 0.1% ammonia/ methanol (v/v) and glucuronic acid/sulfate conjugates and then decomposed using β-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase. After alkaline digestion/derivatization, the concentration of OH-PCBs was determined by HRGC/HRMS-SIM. In the first sampling campaign, the worker's OH-PCB levels increased several fold after the PCB waste transportation work, indicating exposure to PCBs...

Chitosan (CS), a kind of naturally produced polysaccharide with extraordinary biocompatibility and biodegradation, shows much potential to act as reducing and stabilizing agent in the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for drug delivery. To solve the poor solubility and expand the pharmaceutical applications of CS, various CS derivatives through rational design have been developed and further used to prepare, stabilize, and mediate self-assembling of gold materials. Herein, we chose sulfonic chitosan as a stabilizing reagent for the synthesis of highly stable AuNPs (AuNP/SCSs) with diameters of about 3 nm...

Conducting hydromorphological assessments for evaluating the ecological status of rivers is a key requirement of the Directive 2000/60/EC (Water Framework Directive - WFD) within European Union (EU) Member States. This paper aims at understanding how this requirement was implemented, through an original comparative review of methodologies for rivers' hydromorphological assessment in three EU Member States, which joined the EU at different times, and with many differences in terms of hydrographic features, socio-economic and water management systems: France, Romania, and Croatia...

Olive mill wastewater is an industrial waste, generated as a byproduct of olive oil production process and generally contains components such as organic matter, suspended solids, oil, and grease. Although various methods have been developed to achieve the disposal of this industrial wastewater, due to the low cost, the most common disposal application is the passive storage in the lagoons. The main objective of this study is to reduce pollution parameters in olive mill wastewater and draw water to discharge limits by using plasma technology...

Genetic manipulation of T cells is frequently inefficient, however, when combined with physical methods (i.e. electroporation) a promising alliance with immunotherapy can be formed. This study presents new data on permeabilization of murine thymocytes and splenocytes as a T cell model using pulsed electric (PEF) and electromagnetic field (EMF). The 300ns, 500ns, 2μs and 100μs pulse bursts in a broad range of PEF 0-8kV/cm were applied separately and in combination with 3.3T, 0.2kV/cm EMF pulses. The permeabilization efficiency was evaluated using fluorescent dye (YO-PRO-1) and flow cytometry...

BACKGROUND: Patellar malalignment (PM) in most patients is ascribed to an imbalance of peripatellar soft tissue tension. RESEARCH QUESTION: Conservative treatment of PM initially with enforced training of the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) has been widely applied. Non-operative techniques for treatment of PM require continuing development. METHODS: Thirty healthy young adults participated in the study. Two surface electromyography (EMG) electrodes were placed on the skin of the dominant lower thigh in each subject: one on the center of the muscle belly of the VMO and the other on the symmetric location of the vastus lateralis (VL)...

Three new iridium (III) complexes [Ir (ppy)2 (ipbc)](PF6 ) (1), [Ir (bzq)2 (ipbc)](PF6 ) (2) and [Ir (piq)2 (ipbc)](PF6 ) (3) were designed and synthesized. All the complexes were tested for anticancer activity using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole)-2,5-diphenyltetraazolium bromide (MTT) method. The complexes show no cytotoxic activity toward cancer BEL-7402, SGC-7901, Eca-109, A549, HeLa and HepG2 cells. However, upon irradiation with white light, the complexes display high cytotoxicity against BEL-7402 cells with an IC50 value of 5...

A rapid and sensitive multi-residue method was developed for the simultaneous quantification of eight chiral pesticides (including diniconazole, metalaxyl, paclobutrazol, epoxiconazole, myclobutanil, hexaconazole, napropamide and isocarbophos) at enantiomeric levels in environmental soils and sediments using chiral liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry based on a combined pretreatment of matrix solid-phase dispersion and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (MSPD-DLLME). Under optimized conditions, 0...

Liver fibrosis and in particular cirrhosis are the major causes of morbidity and mortality of patients with chronic liver disease. Their prevention or reversal have become major endpoints in clinical trials with novel liver specific drugs. Remarkable progress has been made with therapies that efficiently address the cause of the underlying liver disease, as in chronic hepatitis B and C. Highly effective antiviral therapy can prevent progression or even induce reversal in the majority of patients, but such treatment remains elusive for the majority of liver patients with advanced alcoholic or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, genetic or autoimmune liver diseases...

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been incorporated into pathogenic bacterial identification methods and has improved their rapidity. Various methods have been reported to directly identify bacteria with MALDI-TOF MS by pretreating culture medium in blood culture bottles. Rapid BACpro® (Nittobo Medical Co., Ltd.) is a pretreatment kit for effective collection of bacteria with cationic copolymers. However, the Rapid BACpro® pretreatment kit is adapted only for MALDI Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics K...

The identification of connexel-wise associations, which involves examining functional connectivities between pairwise voxels across the whole brain, is both statistically and computationally challenging. Although such a connexel-wise methodology has recently been adopted by brain-wide association studies (BWAS) to identify connectivity changes in several mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism and depression, the multiple correction and power analysis methods designed specifically for connexel-wise analysis are still lacking...