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The ratios of cotinine-verified to self-reported smoking rates were 1.95 for women and 1.07 for men. Conclusion The results of this study were that sex differences might affect the association between COPD and smoking and that female hidden smoking might affect the association between smoking and COPD in Korean adults.Adaptive laboratory evolution is often used to improve the performance of microbial cell factories. Reverse engineering of evolved strains enables learning and subsequent incorporation of novel design strategies via the design-build-test-learn cycle. Here, we reverse engineer a strain of Escherichia coli previously evolved for increased tolerance of octanoic acid (C8), an attractive biorenewable chemical, resulting in increased C8 production, increased butanol tolerance, and altered membrane properties. Here, evolution was determined to have occurred first through the restoration of WaaG activity, involved in the production of lipopolysaccharides, then an amino acid change in RpoC, a subunit of RNA polymerase, and finally mutation of the BasS-BasR two component system. All three mutations were required in order to reproduce the increased growth rate in the presence of 20 mM C8 and increased cell surface hydrophobicity; the WaaG and RpoC mutations both contributed to increased C8 titers, with the RpoC mutation appearing to be the major driver of this effect. Each of these mutations contributed to changes in the cell membrane. Increased membrane integrity and rigidity and decreased abundance of extracellular polymeric substances can be attributed to the restoration of WaaG. The increase in average lipid tail length can be attributed to the RpoCH419P mutation, which also confers tolerance to other industrially-relevant inhibitors, such as furfural, vanillin and n-butanol. The RpoCH419P mutation may impact binding or function of the stringent response alarmone ppGpp to RpoC site 1. Each of these mutations provides novel strategies for engineering microbial robustness, particularly at the level of the microbial cell membrane.Thyroid cancer is the most frequent endocrine malignancy, with more than 500,000 cases per year worldwide. Differentiated thyroid cancers are the most common forms with best prognosis, while poorly/undifferentiated ones are rare (2% of all thyroid cancer), aggressive, frequently metastasize and have a worse prognosis. For aggressive, metastatic and advanced thyroid cancer novel antitumor molecules are urgently needed and phytochemical products can be a rational and extensive source, since secondary plant metabolites can guarantee the necessary biochemical variability for therapeutic purpose. Among bioactive molecules that present biological activity on thyroid cancer, resveratrol, curcumin, isoflavones, glucosinolates are the most common and used in experimental model. Most of them have been studied both in vitro and in vivo on this cancer, but rarely in clinical trial. This review summarizes phytochemicals, phytotherapeutics and plant derived compounds used in thyroid cancer.Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and neurological morbidity. Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) has the poorest prognosis among all stroke subtypes and no treatment has been effective in improving outcomes. Following ICH, the observed high levels of S100B protein have been associated with worsening of injury and neurological deficits. Arundic acid (AA) exerts neuroprotective effects through inhibition of astrocytic synthesis of S100B in some models of experimental brain injury; however, it has not been studied in ICH. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of AA in male Wistar rats submitted to ICH model assessing the following variables reactive astrogliosis, S100B levels, antioxidant defenses, cell death, lesion extension and neurological function. Firstly, AA was injected at different doses (0.02, 0.2, 2 and 20 μg/μl) in the left lateral ventricle in order to observe which dose would decrease GFAP and S100B striatal levels in non-injured rats. Following determination of the effective dose, ICH damage was induced by IV-S collagenase intrastrial injection and 2 μg/μl AA was injected through ICV route immediately before injury. AA treatment prevented ICH-induced neurological deficits and tissue damage, inhibited excessive astrocytic activation and cellular apoptosis, reduced peripheral and central S100B levels (in striatum, serum and cerebrospinal fluid), improved neuronal survival and enhanced the antioxidant defences after injury. Altogether, these results suggest that S100B is a viable target for treating ICH and highlight AA as an interesting strategy for improving neurological outcome after experimental brain hemorrhage.Background Biological procedures for the synthesis of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) are eco-friendly, cost-effective, and easily scalable as compared to chemical and physical methods. Methods In the present study, a simple fungus based synthesis method was used for copper nanoparticles. After morphological and molecular characterization of fungal strains, Aspergillus niger strain STA9 was used for CuNPs synthesis. Particles synthesized by fungi were characterized by UV-visible spectrophotometer, FTIR, and Zetasizer. The MTT anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and antibacterial assays of CuNPs were performed. Results The CuNPs were produced at optimized conditions with a size of 500 nm, Z-average 398.2 nm, and 0.246 poly dispersion index. These particles were quantified at 480 nm and FTIR confirmed the existence of OH and -C=C- functional groups. MTT assay revealed that CuNPs have a significant cytotoxic effect against human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (Huh-7) with 3.09 μg/ml IC50 value. this website Alpha-glucosidase inhibition showed that CuNPs have a moderate antidiabetic effect. The agar well antibacterial effect indicated 19, 21, 16, 20, and 17 mm zone of inhibition against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Micrococcus luteus and Bacillus subtilis respectively. Conclusion Such biomedical applications of CuNPs reveal the importance of a targeted drug delivery system.Introduction Pulmonary embolism (PE) prevalence in acute exacerbations of COPD is highly variable. Methods To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of PE in patients hospitalized in Departments of Internal Medicine because of AECOPD and suspected PE we conducted a retrospective multicenter study in patients with an AECOPD undergoing chest angio-computed tomography (angio-CT) because of clinical suspect of PE. Results 1043 patients (mean age 75.8 years ± 9.7 years, 34.5 % women) were included; 132 patients had PE (mean prevalence 12.66%, 95% confidence interval 10.73, 14.77%).) confirmed by angio-CT and 54 patients died during hospitalization (5.18 %). At multivariate analysis, age, female gender, clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of deep vein thrombosis, hypertension, PaCO2 ≤ 40 mmHg, and normal chest-x-ray were significantly associated with a higher PE prevalence. Prevalence of PE in patients with 0, 1, 2, 3 or ≥4 risk factors progressively increase from 1.76 to 30.43%. Mean length of hospitalization (LOH) (15.7 vs 14.2 days, p 0.07) and in-hospital mortality (6.1% vs 5.1%, P=0.62) were slightly but not significantly higher in in patients with PE (6.1% vs 5.1%, P=0.62). Conclusions PE prevalence is not negligible in this setting. A number of risk factors may help clinicians in identification of patients at increased risk of PE.A monolithic mixed matrix membrane of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes-polyethersulfone (MWCNT/PES) was prepared in a non-covalent approach and employed as an SPME fiber for extraction of chlorophenols (CPs). The proposed extraction method was followed by GC-ECD to determine the analytes. The influencing factors on the extraction efficiency such as pH, ionic strength, extraction and desorption temperature and time were studied. Under the selected conditions, calibration curves were linear over a wide concentration range from 0.005 to 1000 µgL-1 (r2 > 0.9961) for target analytes. In addition, the limits of detection (LOD) of the method were obtained in the range of 0.3-30 ng L-1. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for single fiber repeatability (n = 5) is from 1.4 to 4.6%. Fiber-to-fiber repeatability (n = 3) was also evaluated and the RSD is in the range of 1.3-6.3%. Applications of proposed fiber for extraction of CPs from the headspace of urine and serum samples were successfully investigated. The relative recovery in the biological samples spiked with different levels of CPs were in the range of 91.6-102.5%.In addition to key mammotrophic hormones such as the pituitary prolactin (PRL) and the ovarian steroids progesterone and estradiol, there are local factors that modulate the tissue dynamics of the mammary glands during pregnancy and lactation. By immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR, we found local transcription and translation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GNRH), GNRH receptor (GNRHR), PRL and PRL receptor (PRLR) in mammary glands of adult vizcachas during pregnancy and lactation. Both GNRH and GNRHR showed a lag between protein expression and gene transcription throughout the gestational period while the highest transcription levels of these genes were recorded at early-pregnancy, the epithelial immunoexpressions of both showed their maximum during lactation. RIA results corroborated the presence of GNRH in mammary glands at all the analyzed stages and confirmed the maximum amount of this peptide in the lactating group. Significant amounts of GNRH were detected in milk samples as well. Conversely, PRL and P local coupled expression of GNRH, GNRHR and EGR1 in the mammary gland throughout pregnancy of vizcachas, the PRL-dependent mammary GNRH secretion as well as the GNRH positive feedback on its own transcription suggest an autocrine-paracrine regulatory mechanism and propose an active role for GNRH in mammary gland tissue remodeling.Objectives We aimed to assess the clinical relevance of the marketed pan-mucorales real-time PCR assay MucorGenius® (Pathonostics) on pulmonary specimens relative to that of in-house PCR assays and conventional mycology for the diagnosis of mucormycosis. Methods In total, 319 pulmonary samples from severely immunosuppressed patients at risk for invasive mold disease (IMD) were retrospectively included. Direct examination, mycological culture, and PCR testing were performed using three genus-specific in-house mucorales real-time PCR assays and MucorGenius®PCR. Results from Aspergillus testing, including galactomannan and PCR, were also collected. Results The 319 patients were graded according to modified EORTC-MSG criteria as proven/probable mucormycosis (n=6), proven/probable invasive aspergillosis (IA) (n=63), Aspergillus-mucorales co-infections (n=4), possible IMD (n=152), and excluded IMD (n=94). The in-house and MucorGenius®PCR assays were positive for 33 (10.3%) and 27 (8.5%) samples, respectively, whereas culture was positive for only 10 (3.1%). The in-house and MucorGenius®PCR assays showed a sensitivity of 100% (10/10) and 90% (9/10) and a specificity of 95.7% and 97.9%, respectively. Both PCR assays allowed the detection of mucorales DNA in samples from 10 possible cases and six IA, all missed by culture. Conclusions MucorGenius® showed good performance, despite missing some low fungal burden. Combining mucorales PCR with EORTC-MSG criteria greatly improved the diagnosis of mucormycosis.