Curtisgustafsson4918

Particulate matter (PM) is a crucial health risk factor for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The smaller size fractions, ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5; fine particles) and ≤0.1 μm (PM0.1; ultrafine particles), show the highest bioactivity but acquiring sufficient mass for in vitro and in vivo toxicological studies is challenging. We review the suitability of available instrumentation to collect the PM mass required for these assessments. Five different microenvironments representing the diverse exposure conditions in urban environments are considered in order to establish the typical PM concentrations present. The highest concentrations of PM2.5 and PM0.1 were found near traffic (i.e. roadsides and traffic intersections), followed by indoor environments, parks and behind roadside vegetation. We identify key factors to consider when selecting sampling instrumentation. These include PM concentration on-site (low concentrations increase sampling time), nature of sampling sites (e.g. indoors; noise and space will be an ufficient PM mass for various purposes in a reasonable timeframe.Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) are pervasive and negatively impact lake water quality, resulting in economic losses and public health risks through exposure to cyanotoxins. Therefore, it is critical to better monitor and understand the complexity of CyanoHABs, but current methods do not fully describe the spatial and temporal variability of bloom events. In this work, we developed a framework for a multiscale and multi-modal monitoring approach for CyanoHABs combining drone-based near-range remote sensing with analytical measurements of microcystin cyanotoxins and chlorophyll-a. We analyzed weekly beach monitoring samples from 37 lakes geographically distributed across the state of Iowa (USA) over a 15-week period in the summer of 2019 to quantify ELISA (bioassay), 12 microcystin congeners (LC-MS/MS), and chlorophyll-a. We developed a novel microcystin congener-normalized equivalent toxin metric to compare CyanoHAB impacted waters; this microcystin-LR normalized sum-of-congeners approach yields lower predicted toxicity than parallel ELISA results suggesting ELISA is conservative for assessment. A significant linear relationship existed between chlorophyll-a and microcystin for lakes throughout Iowa (R2 = 0.39, p less then 0.001); lakes with low watershedlake area ratio and long residence times exhibited a stronger correlation. We then developed a novel geometry-based image processing approach to allow for stitching over-water drone images, a previous barrier in photogrammetry. We applied our mutli-modal framework to a case study on Green Valley Lake to assess initial viability and predicted microcystin concentrations within 33%. We concluded that multispectral imaging is possible but may presently be insufficient for predicting microcystin concentrations due to limitations in the spectral capabilities of the multispectral camera, but technologies are quickly advancing, and lightweight hyperspectral imaging could soon become feasible for investigating spatial bloom variability on lakes.Rare mutations in genes originally discovered in multigenerational families have been associated with increased risk of Parkinson's disease (PD). The involvement of rare variants in DNAJC13, UCHL1, HTRA2, GIGYF2, and EIF4G1 loci has been poorly studied or has produced conflicting results across cohorts. However, they are still being often referred to as "PD genes" and used in different models. To further elucidate the role of these 5 genes in PD, we fully sequenced them using molecular inversion probes in 2408 patients with PD and 3444 controls from 3 different cohorts. A total of 788 rare variants were identified across the 5 genes and 3 cohorts. Burden analyses and optimized sequence Kernel association tests revealed no significant association between any of the genes and PD after correction for multiple comparisons. Our results do not support an association of the 5 tested genes with PD. Combined with previous studies, it is unlikely that any of these genes plays an important role in PD. Their designation as "PARK" genes should be reconsidered.

Tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgeries performed in the pediatric population. Although different forms of instruments and various methods are used to perform tonsillectomy, none of them is still recognized as the best global technique. This study aimed to compare the outcomes of the new Bipolar Loop tonsillectomy versus bipolar diathermy technique.

This study is a pilot randomized clinical trial and was conducted on 40 pediatric patients who were the candidate of tonsillectomy. Patients were divided into two groups of Bipolar Loop or bipolar diathermy. Selleck NSC 309132 Operation time, intraoperative bleeding, tonsillar fossa wound, postoperative complications, and duration of return to normal diet were evaluated in the current study.

In both of the Bipolar Loop and bipolar diathermy groups, no significant difference was found in terms of sex, age, and weight. The average amount of the operative time, intra-operative blood loss, and postoperative pain loss were significantly less in the Bipolar Loop group (P<.001). In addition, the tonsillar fossa wound healing scores were significantly better (on the 14th day, P=0.009). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of postoperative bleeding, duration of return to a normal diet, and postoperative symptoms of fever, otalgia, or voice change between the groups.

The study showed that blood loss and postoperative pain through day 7 were significantly less in the Bipolar Loop group. Tonsillectomy with Bipolar Loop can be recommended as one of the methods for tonsillectomy, especially in pediatric patients.

The study showed that blood loss and postoperative pain through day 7 were significantly less in the Bipolar Loop group. Tonsillectomy with Bipolar Loop can be recommended as one of the methods for tonsillectomy, especially in pediatric patients.In this work, the synthesis through solid state reaction and the thermoluminescence (TL) characterization of pellet shaped CaZrO3 samples is reported. X-ray diffraction confirms that orthorhombic CaZrO3 was obtained. The glow curve has two maxima located at 149 and 216 °C as well as a less intense maximum around 350 °C when a 5.0 °C/s heating rate is used after 64 Gy of beta particle exposure. A remarkably reproducibility of the TL response is observed in repeated irradiation - TL readouts cycles. The TL as a function of the dose displays linear dependence in the dose range from 0.5 to 256 Gy. The intensity of the maximum located around 216 °C remains 61% 14 days after irradiation, and then remains closely constant for longer times. The synthesized CaZrO3 exhibits TL properties potentially of interest for use in radiation detection and dosimetry.