Environmental pollution with plastic is a growing problem worldwide. This study investigates the microplastic and mesoplastic pollution of Xialiao Beach in northern Taiwan. Sand from the surface ...(1 cm depth) was collected in a systematic manner. A total of 80 samples were taken along four transects, and plastic particles (≥1 mm) were extracted and quantified. In total, 1939 microplastic particles were recovered, with an average of 96.8 particles per 1 m2. Statistical analysis showed that the backshore had significantly more microplastic particles than the supra littoral or intertidal. Extrapolating the numbers of plastic particles found, approximately 6.8 million plastic particles (≥1 mm) weighing about 250.4 kg should be found in the surface layer of Xialiao Beach. Resampling curves were created from the data set, which showed that at minimum 20 samples should be taken to adequately estimate the mean particle abundance.
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•Results show that entire beach is polluted with microplastic particles.•Average number of microplastic is 96.8 particles per 1 m2.•Approximately 6.8 million microplastic particles ≥ 1 mm, weighing 250.4 kg, can be found in the surface layer of the beach.•Resampling curves show that at least 20 random samples need to be taken to adequately estimate the mean particle abundance.
•Deciphering the processes of skin evolution through ageing is an active domain.•This article reviews dermis evolutions from intra‐uterine to post-natal life.•Changes occurring at the tissue, cells, ...and molecular levels, are presented.•The importance of fibroblasts and extracellular matrix component is detailed.•The complexity and involvement of multiple actors in dermis ageing are highlighted.
Ageing is today a major societal concern that is intrinsically associated with the increase of life expectancy. Outside the context of severe degenerative diseases that affect the elderly populations, normal visible signs of ageing, notably skin sagging and wrinkles, influence the social and individual perception of peoples. Accordingly, there is a strong demand for researches on skin ageing. Deciphering the cellular and molecular processes of skin evolution through ageing is thus an active scientific domain, at the frontier of tissue developmental and ageing biology. The focus of the present article is to provide an overview of the current knowledge concerning the evolution of dermis characteristics at different life stages, from intra‐uterine to post-natal life. The description will integrate stage-specific and age-related changes in dermis characteristics at the tissue, cell, and molecular levels.
Purpose
Percutaneous dilational tracheostomy (PDT) is routinely performed in the intensive care unit with bronchoscopy guidance. Recently, ultrasound has emerged as a potentially useful tool to ...assist PDT and reduce procedure-related complications.
Methods
An open-label, parallel, non-inferiority randomized controlled trial was conducted comparing an ultrasound-guided PDT with a bronchoscopy-guided PDT in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients. The primary outcome was procedure failure, defined as a composite end-point of conversion to a surgical tracheostomy, unplanned associated use of bronchoscopy or ultrasound during PDT, or the occurrence of a major complication.
Results
A total of 4965 patients were assessed for eligibility. Of these, 171 patients were eligible and 118 underwent the procedure, with 60 patients randomly assigned to the ultrasound group and 58 patients to the bronchoscopy group. Procedure failure occurred in one (1.7 %) patient in the ultrasound group and one (1.7 %) patient in the bronchoscopy group, with no absolute risk difference between the groups (90 % confidence interval, −5.57 to 5.85), in the “as treated” analysis, not including the prespecified margin of 6 % for noninferiority. No other patient had any major complication in either group. Procedure-related minor complications occurred in 20 (33.3 %) patients in the ultrasound group and in 12 (20.7 %) patients in the bronchoscopy group (
P
= 0.122). The median procedure length was 11 7–19 vs. 13 8–20 min (
P
= 0.468), respectively, and the clinical outcomes were also not different between the groups.
Conclusions
Ultrasound-guided PDT is noninferior to bronchoscopy-guided PDT in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients.
Management of diabetic ketoacidosis Besen, Bruno A. M. P.; Ranzani, Otavio T.; Singer, Mervyn
Intensive care medicine,
2023/1, Letnik:
49, Številka:
1
Journal Article
TREM2 and neurodegenerative disease Benitez, Bruno A; Cruchaga, Carlos
The New England journal of medicine,
10/2013, Letnik:
369, Številka:
16
Journal Article
This article reports on the calibration and validation of a new GROMOS-compatible parameter set 2016H66 for small organic molecules in the condensed phase. The calibration is based on 62 organic ...molecules spanning the chemical functions alcohol, ether, aldehyde, ketone, carboxylic acid, ester, amine, amide, thiol, sulfide, and disulfide, as well as aromatic compounds and nucleic-acid bases. For 57 organic compounds, the calibration targets are the experimental pure-liquid density ρliq and the vaporization enthalpy ΔH vap, as well as the hydration free energy ΔG wat and the solvation free energy ΔG che in cyclohexane, at atmospheric pressure and at (or close to) room temperature. The final root-mean-square deviations (RMSD) for these four quantities over the set of compounds are 32.4 kg m–3, 3.5 kJ mol–1, 4.1 kJ mol–1, and 2.1 kJ mol–1, respectively, and the corresponding average deviations (AVED) are 1.0 kg m–3, 0.2 kJ mol–1, 2.6 kJ mol–1, and 1.0 kJ mol–1, respectively. For the five nucleic-acid bases, the parametrization is performed by transferring the final 2016H66 parameters from analogous organic compounds followed by a slight readjustment of the charges to reproduce the experimental water-to-chloroform transfer free energies ΔG trn. The final RMSD for this quantity over the five bases is 1.7 kJ mol–1, and the corresponding AVED is 0.8 kJ mol–1. As an initial validation of the 2016H66 set, seven additional thermodynamic, transport, and dielectric properties are calculated for the 57 organic compounds in the liquid phase. The agreement with experiment in terms of these additional properties is found to be reasonable, with significant deviations typically affecting either a specific chemical function or a specific molecule. This suggests that in most cases, a classical force-field description along with a careful parametrization against ρliq, ΔH vap, ΔG wat, and ΔG che results in a model that appropriately describes the liquid in terms of a wide spectrum of its physical properties.
The Plant Peptidome Tavormina, Patrizia; De Coninck, Barbara; Nikonorova, Natalia ...
The Plant cell,
08/2015, Letnik:
27, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Peptides fulfill a plethora of functions in plant growth, development, and stress responses. They act as key components of cell-to-cell communication, interfere with signaling and response pathways, ...or display antimicrobial activity. Strikingly, both the diversity and amount of plant peptides have been largely underestimated. Most characterized plant peptides to date acting as small signaling peptides or antimicrobial peptides are derived from nonfunctional precursor proteins. However, evidence is emerging on peptides derived from a functional protein, directly translated from small open reading frames (without the involvement of a precursor) or even encoded by primary transcripts of microRNAs. These novel types of peptides further add to the complexity of the plant peptidome, even though their number is still limited and functional characterization as well as translational evidence are often controversial. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the reported types of plant peptides, including their described functional and structural properties. We propose a novel, unifying peptide classification system to emphasize the enormous diversity in peptide synthesis and consequent complexity of the still expanding knowledge on the plant peptidome.
Superconducting electronic devices have reemerged as contenders for both classical and quantum computing due to their fast operation speeds, low dissipation, and long coherence times. An ultimate ...demonstration of coherence is lasing. We use one of the fundamental aspects of superconductivity, the ac Josephson effect, to demonstrate a laser made from a Josephson junction strongly coupled to a multimode superconducting cavity. A dc voltage bias applied across the junction provides a source of microwave photons, and the circuit’s nonlinearity allows for efficient down-conversion of higher-order Josephson frequencies to the cavity’s fundamental mode. The simple fabrication and operation allows for easy integration with a range of quantum devices, allowing for efficient on-chip generation of coherent microwave photons at low temperatures.
The triggering receptor expressed on myeloid 2 (TREM2) is an immune phagocytic receptor expressed on brain microglia known to trigger phagocytosis and regulate the inflammatory response. Homozygous ...mutations in TREM2 cause Nasu-Hakola disease, a rare recessive form of dementia. A heterozygous TREM2 variant, p.R47H, was recently shown to increase Alzheimer''s disease (AD) risk. We hypothesized that if TREM2 is truly an AD risk gene, there would be additional rare variants in TREM2 that substantially affect AD risk. To test this hypothesis, we performed pooled sequencing of TREM2 coding regions in 2082 AD cases and 1648 cognitively normal elderly controls of European American descent. We identified 16 non-synonymous variants, six of which were not identified in previous AD studies. Two variants, p.R47H P = 9.17 × 10(-4), odds ratio (OR) = 2.63 (1.44-4.81) and p.R62H P = 2.36 × 10(-4), OR = 2.36 (1.47-3.80) were significantly associated with disease risk in single-variant analyses. Gene-based tests demonstrate variants in TREM2 are genome-wide significantly associated with AD PSKAT-O = 5.37 × 10(-7); OR = 2.55 (1.80-3.67). The association of TREM2 variants with AD is still highly significant after excluding p.R47H PSKAT-O = 7.72 × 10(-5); OR = 2.47 (1.62-3.87), indicating that additional TREM2 variants affect AD risk. Genotyping in available family members of probands suggested that p.R47H (P = 4.65 × 10(-2)) and p.R62H (P = 6.87 × 10(-3)) were more frequently seen in AD cases versus controls within these families. Gel electrophoresis analysis confirms that at least three TREM2 transcripts are expressed in human brains, including one encoding a soluble form of TREM2.
Analysis of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) small RNA data sets revealed the presence of a regulatory cascade affecting disease resistance. The initiators of the cascade are microRNA members of an ...unusually diverse superfamily in which miR482 and miR2118 are prominent members. Members of this superfamily are variable in sequence and abundance in different species, but all variants target the coding sequence for the P-loop motif in the mRNA sequences for disease resistance proteins with nucleotide binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) motifs. We confirm, using transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana, that miR482 targets mRNAs for NBS-LRR disease resistance proteins with coiled-coil domains at their N terminus. The targeting causes mRNA decay and production of secondary siRNAs in a manner that depends on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 6. At least one of these secondary siRNAs targets other mRNAs of a defenserelated protein. The miR482-mediated silencing cascade is suppressed in plants infected with viruses or bacteria so that expression of mRNAs with miR482 or secondary siRNA target sequences is increased. We propose that this process allows pathogen-inducible expression of NBS-LRR proteins and that it contributes to a novel layer of defense against pathogen attack.
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