Cantrellpreston4662

In this study, bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (BCNCs) were obtained from bacterial cellulose nanofibers (BCNFs) by controlled hydrolysis of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids. The influence of hydrolysis temperature and acid type with the addition of the post-treatment step was studied. The obtained BCNCs were analyzed based on the structural characterization and the properties of the nanocrystals. The BCNCs crystallinity increased, and the size of nanocrystals decreased with increasing 10 °C hydrolysis temperature for both acid hydrolysis conditions. Hydrolysis conditions with neutralization post-treatment did not alter the thermal stability of nanocrystals, and BCNCs had high thermal stability like raw BCNFs. Elemental analysis results indicated that sulfur content (S %) was very low for sulfuric acid hydrolyzed samples, and X-ray results did not show any sulfate salt peaks. Thermal stable BCNCs with high crystallinity were successfully produced to meet the process requirements in various applications, especially in the food industry.The major aroma-active compounds in clear red raspberry juice were identified by molecular sensory science approaches. Thirty-one aroma-active compounds were identified using detection frequency analysis and aroma extract dilution analysis. Among them, 18 volatiles with aroma activity in red raspberry were identified for the first time, while 14 volatiles with odor activity values (OAVs) ≥ 1 were confirmed as the major aroma-active compounds. Three C6 aldehydes showed the highest detection frequencies of 8, and β-ionone exhibited the highest OAV of 9507 and flavor dilution factor of 512, which indicated that the floral and grassy note could be dominant in overall aroma. Quantitative descriptive analysis suggested that the grassy, floral, woody, and caramel-like notes can be simulated using aroma recombination model 1. Electronic nose analysis also demonstrated that model 1 had closer similarity to the original juice than others. The combination strategy used here would help improve the knowledge of red raspberry aroma.Hesperidin hydrolysates (HHS) was produced by the hydrolysis of hesperidin (HDN) in previous studies. The potential components in HHS were identified by LC-MS, and minor components (MCS) in HHS were isolated. Antioxidant activities by radical-scavenging capacities, reducing capacity and β-carotene-linoleate assay, anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting NO production of RAW 264.7 cells, and α-glucosidase inhibitory effects of HDN, HHS, MCS and henperetin (HTN) were investigated in present study. HHS showed higher radical scavenging activities, higher reducing capacity, and higher inhibitory activity in the β-carotene-linoleate assay than HDN. HHS inhibited selleck of NO and pro-inflammatory cytokines of RAW 264.7 cells more strongly than HDN. HHS also intensively inhibited α-glucosidase activity whereas HDN showed little activity. In addition, the effects of MCS on above activities showed it play a synergistic part with HTN. This work suggested that hydrolyzation of HDN enhance the activities, and provided valuable information on effective utilization of HDN.Measurements of eye lens dose using over apron dosimeters with a geometric correction factor is an international accepted practice. However, further knowledge regarding geometric correction factors in different contexts is required. The authors studied the correlation between eye lens dose and over apron dosimetry for different medical specialties in eleven hospitals, using a standardized protocol, two independent over apron dosimeters (worn at chest and at neck levels) and a dedicated calibration procedure. The results show good correlation between subjects working on the same medical specialty for 5 specialties Interventional Radiology, Vascular Surgery, Vascular Radiology, Hemodynamics and Neuroradiology. The geometric correction factors resulting from this study could be used to estimate eye lens dose using over apron dosimeters, which are more comfortable than eye lens dosimeters, as reported by the study subjects, as long as the increased uncertainty of the over apron dosimetry compared to the dedicated eye lens dosimetry is acceptable.

To investigate the rate of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positivity in asymptomatic pregnant women admitted to hospital for delivery in a Turkish pandemic center.

This prospective cohort study was conducted in Ankara City Hospital between April, 15, 2020 and June, 5, 2020. A total of 206 asymptomatic pregnant women (103 low-risk pregnant women without any defined risk factor and 103 high-risk pregnant women) were screened for SARS-CoV-2 positivity upon admission to hospital for delivery. Detection of SARS-CoV2 in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples was performed by Real Time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method targeting RdRp (RNA dependent RNA polymerase) gene. Two groups were compared in terms of demographic features, clinical characteristics and SARS-CoV-2 positivity.

Three of the 206 pregnant women participating in the study had positive RT-PCR tests (1.4 %) and all positive cases were in the high-risk pregnancy group. Although, one case in the high-risk pregnancy group had developed symptoms highly suspicious for COVID-19, two repeated RT-PCR tests were negative. SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positivity rate was significantly higher in the high-risk pregnancy group (2.9 % vs 0%, p = 0.04).

Healthcare professionals should be cautious in the labor and delivery of high-risk pregnant women during the pandemic period and universal testing for COVID-19 may be considered in selected populations.

Healthcare professionals should be cautious in the labor and delivery of high-risk pregnant women during the pandemic period and universal testing for COVID-19 may be considered in selected populations.As the number of nuclear power plants (NPPs) being decommissioned increases internationally, many issues are being raised. One such issue is related to site soil analyses for the determination of residual risk for license termination. In a typical site-cleanup analysis, the majority of soil samples at the site are at or below the detection limit (BDL). Conventional approaches to managing BDL data are to simply ignore or substitute the data with a value of zero or the detection limit itself. However, these approaches are statistically biased, limiting their usefulness. #link# Within the environmental science community, the issue of how to treat BDL data has been examined by a number of investigators. This study reviewed the issue of BDL data in nuclear decommissioning using the analytical methods suggested by studies in the environmental science, including the Kaplan-Meier method, robust regression on order statistics, and maximum likelihood estimation. The use of these methods to handle BDL data was examined using a case study with respect to its potential impact on dose/risk assessment, the soil volume removal estimate, and the associated costs. The case study was based on the Colorado School of Mines Research Institute's site soil data. Our analysis included the consideration of the uncertainties associated with residual dose/risk, waste soil volume estimation, and costs. An uncertainty analysis was conducted using a Latin hypercube sampling approach. Results showed that using BDL data can have a large impact on the estimation of dose/risk, waste volume, and waste disposal cost of a NPP decommissioning project.A model is introduced here that for the first time describes carcinogenesis in the context of and interacting with associated inflammatory processes. Central to the model are the control of cytokine production by the innate immune system and its disturbance by additional uncontrolled cytokine sources. The model aims to answer the following questions Why don't tumors form more often? What drives tumor recurrence after an R0 surgery even in UICC I cases, and what causes tumor progression? Which are the host-tumor-host interactions that ultimately lead to lethal outcome in the disease? The model describes the innate immune system under normal conditions as in a dynamic equilibrium, which is shifted toward pro-inflammation when a tumor forms. That in turn causes tumor-associated symptoms, metastasis, and tumor relapse. link2 The recurrence of the tumor from R0/N0/M0-conditions results from the activation of a memory function of the innate immune system, which is conditioned during the initial tumor growth and survives the tumor removal. If activated, this memory function reestablishes, often irreversibly, the shift of the innate immune system away from dynamic equilibrium toward a pro-inflammatory state characterized by nonspecific symptoms originating from the tumor and by activation of dissemination of tumor cells. Once disseminated, these cells can proliferate and form new metastatic structures. Although elements of the memory function are unclear, some properties can be derived from the relapse behavior of tumors. A therapeutic path to influence the innate immune system could be an element in oncologic therapy Reducing the deviation from the dynamic equilibrium would diminish the clinical effects of such a disturbance and decouple the presence of tumor cells from the influence they have on the organism, and thus build a resilience to tumor growth. The model presented here could also influence sepsis and SIRS therapy and possibly other diseases for which the innate immune system is disturbed.Drug repositioning offers two main advantages in drug discovery - the process is less tedious and less costly. In the past, many drugs like thalidomide and sildenafil were successfully repositioned but the process was entirely serendipitous. These days drug repositioning is widely accepted as an alternate method of drug discovery and the process is based on building a strong hypothesis guided by systematic computational and experimental methods. One of the methods used in drug repositioning is based on shared side effects by drugs of different pharmacological categories. This method rests on the principle that drugs that share side effects might also share common biological targets and therefore same pharmacological indications. Old drugs can be repositioned for new uses by identifying the shared side effects of existing drugs and by modulating their chemical structure if required. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women and the second leading cause of death worldwide after lung cancer in both men and women. link3 Letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor, is used in the treatment of advanced, recurrent and metastatic breast cancer in post-menopausal women. Identification of drugs that share side effects with letrozole might help us to identify a potential drug for repositioning in the treatment of breast cancer. Ropinirole, a dopaminergic agonist was found to share the maximum number of side effects with letrozole. Studies have proposed that dopaminergic agonists induce apoptosis in breast, colon, ovarian cancer cells and leukemia neuroblastoma. This is consistent with our hypothesis that ropinirole that shares the maximum number of side effects with letrozole might be effective in the management of breast cancer. This hypothesis was further validated by preliminary molecular docking and in-vitro cell-line studies.