We examined the cross-sectional relationship between environmental tobacco smoke exposure, continuous performance test (CPT) measures, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or learning ...disability symptoms in school-aged children.
In total, 989 children (526 boys, mean age 9.1 ± 0.7 years), recruited from five South Korean cities participated in this study. We used urine cotinine as a biomarker for environmental tobacco smoke exposure, and obtained the children's scores on a CPT. Parents completed the Korean versions of the ADHD rating scale-IV (ADHD-RS) and learning disability evaluation scale (LDES). Using generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), we assessed the associations between urine cotinine concentrations, neuropsychological variables, and symptoms of ADHD and learning disabilities. Additionally, we conducted structural equation models to explore the effects' pathways.
After adjusting for a range of relevant covariates, GLMM showed urinary cotinine levels were significantly and positively associated with CPT scores on omission errors, commission errors, response time, and response time variability, and with parent- and teacher-rated ADHD-RS scores. In addition, urine cotinine levels were negatively associated with LDES scores on spelling and mathematical calculations. The structural equation model revealed that CPT variables mediated the association between urine cotinine levels and parental reports of symptoms of ADHD and learning disabilities.
Our data indicate that environmental exposure to tobacco smoke is associated with ADHD and learning disabilities in children, and that impairments in attention and inhibitory control probably mediate the effect.
We report three‐dimensional (3D) nanoporous graphene with preserved 2D electronic properties, tunable pore sizes, and high electron mobility for electronic applications. The complex 3D network ...comprised of interconnected graphene retains a 2D coherent electron system of massless Dirac fermions. The transport properties of the nanoporous graphene show a semiconducting behavior and strong pore‐size dependence, together with unique angular independence. The free‐standing, large‐scale nanoporous graphene with 2D electronic properties and high electron mobility holds great promise for practical applications in 3D electronic devices.
A nickel for your graphene: The title material was synthesized by chemical vapor deposition using nanoporous nickel. The 3D nanoporous graphene preserves 2D electronic properties, such as high electron mobility and massless Dirac fermions.
Thermoelectric properties of a black phosphorus/blue phosphorus van der Waals heterostructure are investigated by using first-principles calculations and Boltzmann transport theory for both electrons ...and phonons. It is found that the heterostructure is both energetically and kinetically stable even at higher temperature. Compared with those of the constituent black and blue phosphorus monolayers, the thermoelectric performance of the heterostructure is significantly enhanced due to sharply decreased thermal conductivity caused by the presence of van der Waals interactions, as well as obviously reduced band gaps and multi-valley structures resulting from type-II band alignment. As a consequence, the room temperature
ZT
value can reach 1.6, which is much higher than those of the components. Furthermore, we obtain
ZT
over 2.0 in a wide temperature range from 400 to 800 K, and a maximum
ZT
of ∼3.2 can be realized at 700 K, which is surprisingly good for systems consisting of light elements only.
Thermoelectric properties of a black phosphorus/blue phosphorus van der Waals heterostructure are investigated by using first-principles calculations and Boltzmann transport theory for both electrons and phonons.
Abstract
The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) experiment successfully recorded data for 539 days from 2017 August to 2019 February. We report the energy ...spectrum of cosmic-ray protons from the ISS-CREAM experiment at energies from 1.60 × 10
3
to 6.55 × 10
5
GeV. The measured spectrum deviates from a single power law. A smoothly broken power-law fit to the data, including statistical and systematic uncertainties, shows the spectral index change at 9.0 × 10
3
GeV from 2.57 ± 0.03 to 2.82 ± 0.02 with a significance of greater than 3
σ
. This bump-like structure is consistent with a spectral softening recently reported by the balloon-borne CREAM, DAMPE, and NUCLEON, but ISS-CREAM extends measurements to higher energies.
Polysaccharides are natural biological molecules that have numerous advantages for theranostics, the integrated approach of therapeutics and diagnostics. Their derivable reactive groups can be ...leveraged for functionalization with a nanoparticle-enabling conjugate, therapeutics (small molecules, proteins, peptides, photosensitizers) and/or diagnostic agents (imaging agents, sensors). In addition, polysaccharides are diverse in size and charge, biodegradable and abundant and show low toxicity in vivo. Polysaccharide-based nanoparticles are increasingly being used as platforms for simultaneous drug delivery and imaging and are therefore becoming popular theranostic nanoparticles. The review focuses on the method of nanoparticle formation (self-assembled, physical or chemical cross-linked) when engineering polysaccharide-based nanoparticles for theranostic nanomedicine. We highlight recent examples of polysaccharide-based theranostic systems from literature and their potential for use in the clinic, particularly chitosan- and hyaluronic acid-based NPs.
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Background and purpose:
Previously we demonstrated that the spinal sigma‐1 receptor (Sig‐1 R) plays an important role in pain transmission, although the exact mechanism is still unclear. It has been ...suggested that Sig‐1 R agonists increase glutamate‐induced calcium influx through N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Despite data suggesting a link between Sig‐1 Rs and NMDA receptors, there are no studies addressing whether Sig‐1 R activation directly affects NMDA receptor sensitivity.
Experimental approach:
We studied the effect of intrathecal (i.t.) administration of Sig‐1 R agonists on protein kinase C (PKC) and protein kinase A (PKA) dependent phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor subunit NR1 (pNR1) as a marker of NMDA receptor sensitization. In addition, we examined whether this Sig‐1 R mediated phosphorylation of NR1 plays an important role in sensory function using a model of NMDA‐induced pain.
Key results:
Both Western blot assays and image analysis of pNR1 immunohistochemical staining in the spinal cord indicated that i.t. injection of the Sig‐1 R agonists, PRE‐084 or carbetapentane dose dependently enhanced pNR1 expression in the murine dorsal horn. This increased pNR1 expression was significantly reduced by pretreatment with the specific Sig‐1 R antagonist, BD‐1047. In another set of experiments Sig‐1 R agonists further potentiated NMDA‐induced pain behaviour and pNR1 immunoreactivity and this was also reversed with BD‐1047.
Conclusions and implications:
The results of this study suggest that the activation of spinal Sig‐1 R enhances NMDA‐induced pain via PKC‐ and PKA‐dependent phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor NR 1 subunit.
British Journal of Pharmacology (2008) 154, 1125–1134; doi:10.1038/bjp.2008.159; published online 19 May 2008
Phenotypic differences in drug responses have been associated with known pharmacogenomic loci, but many remain to be characterized. Therefore, we developed next‐generation sequencing (NGS) panels to ...enable broad and unbiased inspection of genes that are involved in pharmacokinetics (PKs) and pharmacodynamics (PDs). These panels feature repetitively optimized probes to capture up to 114 PK/PD‐related genes with high coverage (99.6%) and accuracy (99.9%). Sequencing of a Korean cohort (n = 376) with the panels enabled profiling of actionable variants as well as rare variants of unknown functional consequences. Notably, variants that occurred at low frequency were enriched with likely protein‐damaging variants and previously unreported variants. Furthermore, in vitro evaluation of four pharmacogenes, including cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19), confirmed that many of these rare variants have considerable functional impact. The present study suggests that targeted NGS panels are readily applicable platforms to facilitate comprehensive profiling of pharmacogenes, including common but also rare variants that warrant screening for personalized medicine.
The exact blood vessel trees segmented from fundus images provide important information required for screening and following-up of diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. The ...trained deep neural network presents an automated prediction of the blood vessels in retinal fundus camera images in the publicly DRIVE database with accuracy up to 0.9533 and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve up to 0.9752, which is better than manual recognition by expert human eyes. A resizing technique is introduced and applied to the multi-level network combining dropout and spatial-dropout layers to obtain more generalised training. The proposed model has the potential for the classification of other types of images.
This study was conducted to elucidate the association between clinical and angiographic characteristics and stroke types in adult Moyamoya disease that has been rarely evaluated.
We analyzed the ...clinical and radiologic data obtained from a retrospective adult Moyamoya disease cohort with acute strokes, which were classified into 7 categories: large-artery infarct, hemodynamic infarct, perforator infarct, deep intracerebral hemorrhage, lobar intracerebral hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage, and SAH. With conventional angiography, which was performed in the hemispheres with acute strokes, the Suzuki angiographic stage, intracranial aneurysm, major artery occlusion, and collateral vessel development were confirmed within 1 month of stroke onset.
This study included 79 patients with acute ischemic stroke and 96 patients with acute hemorrhagic stroke. The angiographic stage had a strong tendency to be more advanced in the hemorrhagic than the ischemic patients (P = .061). Intracranial aneurysms were more frequently found in the hemorrhagic than ischemic or control hemispheres (P = .002). Occlusions of the anterior cerebral artery and development of fetal-type posterior cerebral artery were more frequently observed in the hemorrhagic than the ischemic (P = .001 and .01, respectively) or control hemispheres (P = .011 and .013, respectively). MCA occlusion (P = .039) and collateral flow development, including the ethmoidal Moyamoya vessels (P = .036) and transdural anastomosis of the external carotid artery (P = .022), occurred more often in the hemorrhagic than the ischemic hemispheres. Anterior cerebral artery occlusion occurred more frequently in patients with deep intracerebral hemorrhage or intraventricular hemorrhage than with lobar intracerebral hemorrhage (P = .009).
In adult Moyamoya disease, major artery occlusion and collateral compensation occurred more often in the hemorrhagic than in the ischemic hemispheres. Thus, anterior cerebral artery occlusion with or without MCA occlusion and intracranial aneurysms may be the main contributing factors to hemorrhagic stroke in adult patients with Moyamoya disease.
The Solitaire FR can be used not only as a tool for mechanical thrombectomy but also as a detachable permanent stent. Our aim was to assess the feasibility and safety of permanent stent placement ...with the Solitaire FR compared with other self-expanding stents for intracranial artery recanalization for acute ischemic stroke.
From January 2011 through January 2016, we retrospectively selected 2979 patients with acute ischemic stroke. Among them, 27 patients who underwent permanent stent placement (13 patients with the Solitaire FR Solitaire group and 14 patients with other self-expanding stents other stent group) were enrolled. The postprocedural modified TICI grade and angiographic and clinical outcomes were assessed. The safety and efficacy of permanent stent placement of the Solitaire FR for acute large-artery occlusion were evaluated.
Stent placement was successful in all cases. Modified TICI 2b-3 reperfusion was noted in 84.6% of the Solitaire group and in 78.6% of the other stent group. Procedural time was significantly shorter in the Solitaire group than in the other stent group (
= .022). Shorter procedural time was correlated with favorable outcome (ρ = 0.46,
= .035). No significant differences were found in the modified TICI grade, NIHSS score, mRS, and hemorrhagic transformation rate between the 2 groups. The acute in-stent thrombosis rate at discharge was significantly lower when a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor was injected during the procedure (
= .013).
Permanent stent placement with the Solitaire FR compared with other self-expanding stents appears to be feasible and safe as a rescue tool for refractory intra-arterial therapy.
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