Development

AIMS: Cutaneous follicular (infundibular-tricholemmal) squamous cell carcinoma (FSCC) is a new World Health Organization entity. We present the largest series of published cases, summarizing clinical data, diagnostic criteria, differential diagnosis, and implications for patient management. METHODS: Cases were identified from 2004 to 2011. Inclusion criteria included discrete attachment(s) of the tumor to the overlying epidermis via follicular infundibula, tricholemmal keratinization, and cellular pleomorphism...

Blau syndrome is a rare familial autoinflammatory disorder characterized by the triad of granulomatous dermatitis, polyarthritis, and uveitis. Blau syndrome exhibits an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern and can be caused by a gain-of-function mutation in nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 (NOD2), a member of the NOD-like receptor family of pattern recognition receptors. Mutations in NOD2 cause upregulation of inflammatory cytokines and resultant autoinflammation. Because of the rarity of this condition and early onset of symptoms, Blau syndrome may be misdiagnosed as juvenile idiopathic arthritis...

IMPORTANCE: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) consists of a group of pulmonary disorders characterized by inflammation and/or fibrosis of the lung parenchyma associated with progressive dyspnea that frequently results in end-stage respiratory failure. In the US, ILD affects approximately 650 000 people and causes approximately 25 000 to 30 000 deaths per year. OBSERVATIONS: The most common forms of ILD are idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which accounts for approximately one-third of all cases of ILD, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, accounting for 15% of ILD cases, and connective tissue disease (CTD), accounting for 25% of ILD cases...

Cancer-related deadly diseases affect both developed and underdeveloped nations worldwide. Effective network learning is crucial to more reliably identify and categorize breast carcinoma in vast and unbalanced image datasets. The absence of early cancer symptoms makes the early identification process challenging. Therefore, from the perspectives of diagnosis, prevention, and therapy, cancer continues to be among the healthcare concerns that numerous researchers work to advance. It is highly essential to design an innovative breast cancer detection model by considering the complications presented in the classical techniques...

OBJECTIVES: Successful leaders influence the group they represent. Effective surgical care is tied to its leadership climate. However, most surgical providers are not attuned to their individual strengths which if known they could leverage them within their teams. This study identifies leadership types within a department of surgery which may be used to better understand and cultivate their strengths. METHODS: In 2022, 172 providers in an academic surgery department were offered the GallupTM CliftonStrengths assessment, a proprietary instrument that maps 34 strengths across 4 domains of leadership...

This study investigates how temperature and forward osmosis (FO) membrane properties, such as water permeability (A), solute permeability (B), and structural parameter (S), affect the specific energy consumption (SEC) of forward osmosis-reverse osmosis system. The results show that further SEC reduction beyond the water permeability of 3 LMH bar-1 is limited owing to high concentration polarization (CP). Increasing S by 10-fold increases FO recovery by 177.6%, causing SEC decreases by 33.6%. However, membrane with smaller S also increases external CP...

Vanillyl alcohol (VA) possesses potent antioxidant activity, yet its applicability is hindered by its limited solubility in emulsions or non-polar organic solvents. Conversely, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids exhibit antibacterial properties. The combination of these compounds offers the prospect of developing novel phenolic lipid compounds with dual antioxidant and antibacterial activities, alongside enhanced solubility capabilities. In this investigation, linolenic acid vanillyl ester (LAVE) was synthesized from VA and linseed oil (LO) through a transesterification reaction employing immobilized lipase...

Patients with burn injury and inhalation injury are highly susceptible to infectious complications, including opportunistic pathogens, due to the loss of skin cover and mucosal damage of respiratory tract as well as the disruption of homeostasis. This case report, a 34-year-old man suffered critical burns, provides the first literature description of triple-impact immunoparalysis (critical burns, inhalation injury, and SARS-CoV-2 infection), leading to a lethal multifocal infection caused by several fungi including very rare environmental representatives Metschnikowia pulcherrima and Wickerhamomyces anomalus...

The pyridine moiety is a crucial structural component in various pharmaceuticals. While the direct ortho- and para-functionalization of pyridines is relatively straightforward, the meta-selective C-H functionalization remains a significant challenge. This review highlights dearomatization strategies as a key area of interest in expanding the application of meta-C-H functionalization of pyridines. Dearomatization enables the meta-functionalization through various catalytic methods that directly generate dearomatization products, and some products can be rearomatized back to pyridine derivatives...

The concept of biorefinery has been advancing globally and organosolv pretreatment strategy has seen an upsurge in research due to its efficiency in removing the recalcitrant lignin and dissolution of cellulose. The high-performance organosolv system uses green solvents and its reusability contributes concurrently to the biorefinery sector and sustainability. The major advantage of the current system involves the continuous removal of lignin to enhance cellulose accessibility, thereby easing the later biorefinery steps, which were immensely restricted due to the recalcitrant lignin...

BACKGROUND: In order to ensure adequate radiation protection of critical groups such as staff, caregivers and the general public coming into proximity of nuclear medicine (NM) patients, it is necessary to consider the impact of the radiation emitted by the patients during their stay at the hospital or after leaving the hospital. Current risk assessments are based on ambient dose rate measurements in a single position at a specified distance from the patient and carried out at several time points after administration of the radiopharmaceutical to estimate the whole-body retention...

Bispecific antibody (bsAb), a novel therapeutic modality, provides excellent treatment efficacy, yet poses numerous challenges to downstream process development, which are mainly due to the intricate diversity of bsAb structures and impurity profiles. Ceramic hydroxyapatite (CHT), a mixed-mode medium, allows proteins to interact with its calcium sites (C-sites) through metal affinity and/or its phosphate sites (P-sites) through cation exchange interactions. This dual-binding capability potentially offers unique bind and elute behaviours for different proteins of interest, resulting in optimal product purity when suitable elution conditions are employed...

Acanthamoeba spp. emerged as a clinically important pathogen related to amoebic keratitis. It is among the main causes of corneal transplantation and vision loss in ophthalmology. The treatment protocols have a low cure rate, high toxicity, and need for drug combination. Transition metal compounds have shown promising antiprotozoal effects. This study evaluates the amoebicidal activity of copper(II) coordination compounds in combination with chlorhexidine and the cytotoxicity to topical ocular application. These copper(II) coordination compounds were screened against Acanthamoeba castellanii trophozoites (ATCC 50492)...

PURPOSE: Surgical therapy represents the first-line treatment for endogenous Cushing's syndrome (CS). While postoperative glucocorticoid replacement is mandatory after surgical remission, the role of perioperative glucocorticoid therapy is unclear. METHODS: We recruited patients with central or adrenal CS in whom curative surgery was planned and patients who underwent pituitary surgery for other reasons than CS as a control group. Patients did not receive any perioperative glucocorticoids until the morning of the first postoperative day...

The bioconversion of 4-hydroxy-2-keto acid derivatives via aldol condensation of formaldehyde and pyruvate has received substantial attention as potential source of chemicals for production of amino acids, hydroxy carboxylic acids, and chiral aldehydes. We developed an environmentally friendly biocatalyst consisting of a novel thermostable class II pyruvate aldolase from Deinococcus radiodurans with maltose-binding protein (MBP-DrADL), which has specific activity of 46.3 µmol min-1  mg-1 . Surprisingly, MBP-DrADL maintained over 60% of enzyme activity for 4 days at 50 to 65 °C, we used MBP-DrADL as the best candidate enzyme to produce 2-keto-4-hydroxybutyrate (2-KHB) from formaldehyde and pyruvate via aldol condensation...

PURPOSE: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is the cornerstone of high-quality care for older adults. There is no current gold standard to guide what should be included as the baseline measure for CGAs. We examined what metrics are being captured in CGA baseline assessments completed by community based integrated care teams in Ireland. METHODS: CGA's care pathways in Ireland are usually initiated with a written document that establish patients baseline in various assessment areas...

In the context of the rapid development of low-carbon economy, there has been increasing interest in utilizing naturally abundant and cost-effective one-carbon (C1) substrates for sustainable production of chemicals and fuels. Moorella thermoacetica, a model acetogenic bacterium, has attracted significant attention due to its ability to utilize carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) via the Wood-Ljungdahl (WL) pathway, thereby showing great potential for the utilization of C1 gases. However, natural strains of M...

We have prepared a simple, universal and efficient coumarin-derived fluorescent probe (XDS1) to detecting HOCl. The experimental findings revealed that the introduction of HOCl produced an obvious quenching effect on the probe with high selectivity and sensitivity. The calculated limit of detection (LOD) was as low as 0.02 μM. Furthermore, an impressive response time of less than 10 s was observed when XDS1 detecting HOCl. Importantly, the probe XDS1 exhibited negligible cytotoxicity, thereby facilitating its application for imaging HOCl within biological environment...

A selective and sensitive fluorometric assay was developed for specific determination of curcumin (Cur) based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between molybdenum disulfide quantum dots (MoS2 QDs) and Cur. The MoS2 QDs were prepared via a one-step hydrothermal protocol using sodium molybdate dihydrate, L-cysteine (Cys) as precursors, and sodium cholate (SC) as a modification agent. The as-prepared MoS2 QDs possessed maximum fluorescence emission at 460 nm with a 20% of fluorescence quantum yield (FQY)...

Because of its potent antioxidant effects, lycopene has been used in various industries including, but not limited to, food, medical, and cosmetic industries. Yarrowia lipolytica, a non-conventional yeast species, is a promising chassis due to its natural mevalonate (MVA) pathway, abundant precursor acetyl coenzyme A content, and oleaginous properties. Several gene editing tools have been developed for Y. lipolytica along with engineering strategies for tetraterpenoid production. In this study, we engineered Y...