Water only fasting

Complete submergence, especially deep submergence, poses a serious threat to the growth and survival of plants. One study previously showed that Alternanthera philoxeroides (a herbaceous perennial plant) submerged at depth of 2 m presented fast stem elongation and reduced stem elongation as water depth increased. In the present study, we aimed to figure out from the morphological and anatomical perspective how the differential growth response of the plant to water depth was achieved. We investigated the elongation of different stem parts and the relationship of stem elongation to cell size and number in A...

This paper describes the design and optimization of a smart algorithm based on artificial intelligence to increase the accuracy of an ocean water current meter. The main purpose of water current meters is to obtain the fundamental frequency of the ocean waves and currents. The limiting factor in those underwater applications is power consumption and that is the reason to use only ultra-low power microcontrollers. On the other hand, nowadays extraction algorithms assume that the processed signal is defined in a fixed bandwidth...

Designing autonomously oscillating materials is highly desirable for emerging smart material fields but challenging. Herein, a type of hypercrosslinked metal-organic polyhedra (HCMOPs) membranes formed by covalent crosslinking of boronic acid-modified Zr-based MOPs with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are rationally designed. In these membranes, MOPs serve as high-connectivity nodes and provide dynamic borate bonds with PVA in hypercrosslinked networks, which can be broken/formed reversibly upon the stimulus of water vapor...

Sonochemical synthesis can be a facile, fast, efficient, versatile and economical way to prepare a large variety of conventional or novel nanostructured materials (metallic, magnetic, semiconducting, polymeric, etc.). In this work, zinc oxide nanocrystals were synthesized by irradiating and heating at 90 °C in a commercial ultrasonic bath a water solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate and ammonia solution or hexamethylenetetramine as base catalysts. The evolution of the powder morphology and its crystalline structure was investigated at different times of ultrasonic irradiation (0-9 hours) and compared with samples obtained only by heating the solutions in a muffle furnace in order to enlighten the growth mechanism...

Bisphenol A (BPA), known for its endocrine-disrupting properties and potential to leach into food products, has led to significant food safety concerns. Therefore, the development of sensitive and selective BPA rapid detection methods is crucial. In this study, molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction coupled to a colorimetric method was adopted for the smartphone-based determination of BPA. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared via photopolymerization and used as a selective adsorbent material for SPE columns...

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide unmatched spatial and time resolution of protein structure and function. However, the accuracy of MD simulations often depends on the quality of force field parameters and the time scale of sampling. Another limitation of conventional MD simulations is that the protonation states of titratable amino acid residues remain fixed during simulations, even though protonation state changes coupled to conformational dynamics are central to protein function. Due to the uncertainty in selecting protonation states, classical MD simulations are sometimes performed with all amino acids modeled in their standard charged states at pH 7...

Surviving long periods without food has shaped human evolution. In ancient and modern societies, prolonged fasting was/is practiced by billions of people globally for religious purposes, used to treat diseases such as epilepsy, and recently gained popularity as weight loss intervention, but we still have a very limited understanding of the systemic adaptions in humans to extreme caloric restriction of different durations. Here we show that a 7-day water-only fast leads to an average weight loss of 5.7 kg (±0...

Marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important component of the global carbon cycle, yet its intricate composition and the sea salt matrix pose major challenges for chemical analysis. We introduce a direct injection, reversed-phase liquid chromatography ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry approach to analyze marine DOM without the need for solid-phase extraction. Effective separation of salt and DOM is achieved with a large chromatographic column and an extended isocratic aqueous step. Postcolumn dilution of the sample flow with buffer-free solvents and implementing a counter gradient reduced salt buildup in the ion source and resulted in excellent repeatability...

BACKGROUND: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides nutrition assistance to low-income households, including infant formula for infants not fully breastfeeding. Issuance of lactose-reduced infant formula made with corn syrup solids (CSSF) is associated with elevated risk of obesity in early life, but associations between formula type and dietary intake have not been examined. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate associations between infant formula (amount and type) issued by WIC with subsequent child diet at ages 12-59 mo...

The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via the Fenton reaction has received significant attention for widespread applications. This reaction can be triggered by zero-valent metal nanoparticles by converting externally added H2 O2 into hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) in acidic media. To avoid the addition of external additives or energy supply, developing self-sustained catalytic systems enabling onsite production of H2 O2 at a neutral pH is crucial. Here, we present novel galvanic nanocells (GNCs) based on metallic Fe/Au bilayers on arrays of nanoporous silica nanostructures for the generation of self-sustained Fenton reactions...

A fast, sensitive, selective, and biocompatible dual sensor of an antineoplastic medication (methotrexate) and a neurotransmitter (adrenaline) is still being searched by present-day scientists. To overcome this issue, we have designed a functionalized, robust, bio-friendly luminescent MOF for the sensitive, selective, and rapid monitoring of methotrexate and adrenaline. This probe is the first ever reported MOF-based fluorescence sensor of methotrexate and second only for adrenaline. This fluorescence probe has a very low limit of detection (LOD) of 0...

The development of new fluorescent organic probes effective in the NIR-II region is currently a fast-growing field and represents a challenge in the domain of medical imaging. In this study, we have designed and synthesized an innovative series of aza-boron dipyrromethenes emitting in the NIR-II region. We have investigated the effect of different water-solubilizing groups not only on the photophysical properties of the compounds but also on their in vitro and in vivo performance after bioconjugation to the antibody trastuzumab...

Meropenem is an ultrabroad-spectrum antimicrobial agent that is often recommended for the treatment of bacterial meningitis (BM) in children. However, a subtherapeutic phenomenon occurred in BM children complicated with augmented renal clearance (ARC) at the recommended dose of meropenem. To support its pharmacokinetics, a sensitive, fast and robust ultra-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed to measure meropenem concentrations in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)...

Rationale: Tripeptidyl peptidase II (TPP2) has been proven to be related to human immune and neurological diseases. It is generally considered as a cytosolic protein which forms the largest known protease complex in eukaryotic cells to operate mostly downstream of proteasomes for degradation of longer peptides. However, this canonical function of TPP2 cannot explain its role in a wide variety of biological and pathogenic processes. The mechanistic interrelationships and hierarchical order of these processes have yet to be clarified...

We evaluated changes in hyperhydration and beverage hydration index (BHI, a composite measure of fluid balance after consuming a test beverage relative to water) during resting, induced by the consumption of beverages containing glycerol and sodium supplemented with fast-absorbing sucrose or slow-absorbing isomaltulose. In a randomized crossover, single-blinded protocol (clinical trials registry: UMIN000042644), fourteen young physically active adults (3 women) consumed 1 L of beverage containing either 7% glycerol + 0...

The efficient removal of radioactive iodine from an aqueous solution is largely dependent on the adsorbent materials employed. In this work, we report a calix[4]pyrrole-based nanofilm and its application for the rapid removal of iodine from water. The nanofilm was synthesized through a confined dynamic condensation of tetra hydrazide calix[4]pyrrole with 1,3,5-tri-(4-formylphenyl) aldehyde at the air/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) interface. The thickness of the obtained nanofilm is ∼35 nm, enabling fast mass transfer and a high ratio of accessible binding sites for iodine...

Genetic selection for high growth rate has resulted in spectacular progress in feed efficiency in chickens. As feed intake and water consumption (WC) are associated and both are affected by environmental conditions, we evaluated WC and its hypothalamic regulation in three broiler-based research lines and their ancestor jungle fowl (JF) under heat stress (HS) conditions. Slow growing ACRB, moderate growing 95RB, fast growing MRB, and JF were exposed to daily chronic cyclic HS (36 °C, 9 h/d) or thermoneutral temperature (24 °C)...

PURPOSE: The present study aimed at evaluating possible synergistic effects between two risk factors for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disorders, i.e. iron overload and exposure to a hypercaloric/hyperlipidic diet, on cognition, insulin resistance, and hippocampal GLUT1, GLUT3, Insr mRNA expression, and AKT phosporylation. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were treated with iron (30 mg/kg carbonyl iron) or vehicle (5% sorbitol in water) from 12 to 14th post-natal days...

BACKGROUND: Vitamins are micronutrients that are required for normal growth and development of living organisms. However, due to their various chemical properties (e.g., acid-base behavior, the presence of numerous forms) and fluctuating concentration levels within complex matrices, simultaneous analysis of multi-class vitamins, including their active forms, is a challenging task. The growing nutrient shortage in foods is concerning for food consumers, manufacturers, and quality control organizations...

In winter, many reptiles have a period of inactivity ("brumation"). During brumation there is no energetic intake, therefore there would be an advantage to reducing energetic expenditure. The size of energetically costly organs, a major determinant of metabolic rate, is known to be flexible in many tetrapods. Seasonal plasticity of organ size could serve as both an energy-saving mechanism and a source of nutrients for brumating reptiles. We studied a population of an invasive gecko, Tarentola annularis, to test for seasonal changes in activity, metabolic rate, and mass of various organs...