free will

The incorporation of cleavable comonomers as additives into polymers can imbue traditional polymers with controlled deconstructability and expanded end-of-life options. The efficiency with which cleavable comonomer additives (CCAs) can enable deconstruction is sensitive to their local distribution within a copolymer backbone, which is dictated by their copolymerization behavior. While qualitative heuristics exist that describe deconstructability, comprehensive quantitative connections between CCA loadings, reactivity ratios, polymerization mechanisms, and deconstruction reactions on the deconstruction efficiency of copolymers containing CCAs have not been established...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease whose pathobiology associates with peripheral blood immune cell levels and activation patterns in an age and sex-dependent manner. This study's objective was to identify immune profile associations with ALS progression, whether the associations are age and sex-specific, and whether immune profiles can predict a future disease course. METHODS: Flow cytometry immune profiles (a combination of 22 peripheral blood immune markers) were generated for 241 participants with ALS and linked to ALS progression, using progression-free survival, which is a composite combining the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale and survival...

Portable nucleic acid testing (NAT) holds great promise for point-of-care disease diagnosis and field-based applications but remains difficult to achieve. Herein, we describe a portable NAT that streamlines loop-mediated isothermal amplification with photosensitization-based color development in a fully sealed 3D-printed multipiece chip. Using a smartphone accessory and an APP, we also introduce a calibration-free quantification approach via digital color sensing and library matching. With these innovative approaches, our detection platform is highly accessible, allowing for rapid and sensitive NAT without requiring sophisticated instruments and well-trained personnel...

CONTEXT: Due to the essential role of carnitine as an intermediary in amino acid, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, a detailed characterization of circulating and urinary carnitine concentrations will aid in elucidating the molecular basis of impaired maternal metabolic flexibility and facilitating timely intervention for expectant mothers. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of maternal plasma and urinary free carnitine and acylcarnitines with cardiometabolic risk factors...

BACKGROUND: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely detected in pregnant women and associated with adverse outcomes related to impaired placental function. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a dimeric glycoprotein hormone that can indicate placental toxicity. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to quantify the association of serum PFAS with placental hCG, measured as an intact molecule (hCG), as free alpha-(<mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>hCG</mml:mtext><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>) and beta-subunits (<mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a significant global health concern. We need ways to detect it early and determine the best treatments. One promising method is liquid biopsy, which uses cancer cells and other components in the blood to help diagnose and treat the disease. Liquid biopsies focus on three key elements: circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating microRNA (miRNA), and circulating tumor cells (CTC). By analyzing these elements, we can identify CRC in its early stages, predict how well a treatment will work, and even spot signs of cancer returning...

When sea urchin puncture injuries occur during coastal recreation or work activities, they often affect extremities, such as hands and feet. There is a plethora of information on treatments for these puncture injuries, with the most common among medical professionals being the removal of all partially embedded spines and the removal of as many fully embedded spines as possible. When the spines are deeply embedded and/or fragmented, they might not be removed, especially when they are not located in critical areas such as tendons or joints...

BACKGROUND: The reconstructive ladder relies mostly on defect size and depth to determine reconstructive technique, however, in actuality, many more variables ultimately inform reconstructive decision making, especially regarding extremity soft tissue sarcoma (eSTS) defects. The purpose of this study was to describe eSTS patients who will most optimally benefit from an advanced method of reconstruction (defined as a pedicled regional flap or free flap) and to create a simple risk assessment scale that can be employed in clinical practice...

AIM: The aim of this article is to compare the performance of ZeroExpander® realised using PEEK or PA12 for the expansion of the maxilla in paediatric patients, exploring a new concept for approaching maxillary expansion with a metal-free fixed automatic appliance, based on pre-programmed set-up and anchored on deciduous teeth. MATERIALS: It is a retrospective comparative study with a sample of 40 children in early or mixed deciduous dentition and transversal maxillary deficit, 20 treated with ZeroExpander® in PEEK and 20 treated with ZeroExpander® in PA12 with a mean age of 7...

This paper presents a study on two newly constructed two-dimensional van der Waals heterojunctions, Sc2CCl2/MoSe2 and Sc2CCl2/PtSe2, using density-functional theory. The study includes a systematic investigation of their geometrical structure, electronic properties, and optical properties. The results indicate that both heterojunctions are thermodynamically, kinetically, and mechanically stable. Additionally, Bader charge analysis reveals that both heterojunctions exhibit typical type II band properties. However, the band gap of the Sc2CCl2/MoSe2 heterojunction is only 1...

In this study, bentonite supporting phosphorus-doped Fe2 MnO4 (BPF) was synthesized and applied for PMS activation to degrade TCE. Morphology and structure characterization results indicated the successfully synthesized of BPF, and the BPF/PMS system not only featured high TCE removal (97.4%) but also high reaction rate constant (kobs  = 0.0554 min-1 ) and PMS utilization (70.4%, kobs  = 0.0228 min-1 ). According to the results of various experiments, massive oxygen vacancies on P-Fe2 MnO4 alter its charge balance and facilitate the electron transfer process named adjacent transfer (direct electron capture by adsorbed PMS from adjacent TCE)...

Composite materials built in part from living organisms have the potential to exhibit useful autonomous, adaptive, and self-healing behavior. The physicochemical, biological, and mechanical properties of such materials can be engineered through the genetic manipulation of their living components. Successful development of living materials will require not only new methods for design and preparation but also new analytical tools that are capable of real-time noninvasive mapping of chemical compositions. Here, we establish a strategy based on stimulated Raman scattering microscopy to monitor phosphatase-catalyzed mineralization of engineered bacterial films in situ...

DTaP-HBV-IPV-Hib hexavalent vaccine has been used in high-income countries for many years to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, and invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b disease. Currently, no hexavalent vaccines have been approved for use in China. Evidence of parental acceptance and interest in hexavalent vaccines can help policy makers and manufacturers make decisions about entering the vaccine market and the immunization program in China. We measured parental acceptance and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a hexavalent vaccine to provide such evidence...

Sinonasal (SN) malignancies are rare. Within SN adenocarcinomas, the most frequent are intestinal-type adenocarcinomas (ITACs). ITAC has been associated with wood and leather dust occupational exposure and TP53 mutations. Not much information is available regarding its characterization and treatment. The aim of this study is to characterize the clinicopathologic and prognostic factors of patients with sinonasal adenocarcinomas (SNACs) treated in our tertiary-level hospital. A retrospective, consecutive study including SNAC patients diagnosed between 2004-2023 was conducted...

OBJECTIVE: Composite Dietary Antioxidant Index (CDAI) values serve as a summary of an individual's combined dietary antioxidant intake. Although specific antioxidants are known to reduce thyroid damage from oxidative stress, the relationship between the CDAI and thyroid function remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate this relationship in greater detail while focusing on a representative American adult population. METHODS: A total of 6,860 subjects from the 2007-2012 NHANES cohort were included in this study...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Brachytherapy, a new form of radiation therapy, has been used to treat lung cancer and consists of two main forms of treatment: endobronchial brachytherapy and radioactive seed implantation brachytherapy (RSI-BT), the latter of which is used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The use of RSI-BT in the treatment of NSCLC at our centre has yielded some positive results. METHODS: To more fully consider the context of this application, we conducted a search of PubMed from 2018 to March 5, 2023...

BACKGROUND: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the most common type and accounts for 90% of all head and neck cancer cases. Despite advances in early diagnosis and treatment strategies-chemotherapy, surgical resection, and radiotherapy-5-year survival remains grim. For patients with early-stage HNSCC, accurately predicting clinical outcomes is challenging. Considering the pivotal role of the immune system in HNSCC, we developed a reliable immune-related gene signature (IRGS) and explored its predictive accuracy in patients with early-stage HNSCC...

UNLABELLED: Food intake varies across the stages of a rat's estrous cycle. It is reasonable to hypothesize that this cyclic fluctuation in consumption reflects an impact of hormones on taste palatability/preference, but evidence for this hypothesis has been mixed, and critical within-subject experiments in which rats sample multiple tastes during each of the four main estrous phases (metestrus, diestrus, proestrus, and estrus) have been scarce. Here, we assayed licking for pleasant (sucrose, NaCl, saccharin) and aversive (quinine-HCl, citric acid) tastes each day for 5-10 days while tracking rats' estrous cycles through vaginal cytology...

AIMS: Children evaluated for abdominal pain are increasingly recognized to have pancreatic lesions by imaging modalities. Malignant lesions of the pancreas have also been diagnosed at regular intervals, the most common being solid cystic pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPT) - Borderline (uncertain malignant potential). Surgical resection of this tumor should provide adequate tumor free margins and also should preserve pancreatic tissue. Radical resection of the pancreas will lead to pancreatic insufficiency...

BACKGROUND: Myeloid neoplasms account for 50% of cases of pediatric leukemias in infants. Approximately 25%-50% of patients with newborn leukemia have cutaneous extramedullary disease (EMD). In less than 10% of patients, aleukemic leukemia cutis or isolated extramedullary disease with cutaneous involvement (cEMD) occurs when skin lesions appear prior to bone marrow involvement and systemic symptoms. Interestingly, in acute myeloid leukemia with cutaneous EMD (AML-cEMD) and cEMD, spontaneous remissions have been reported...