Untethered magnetic miniature soft robots capable of accessing hard-to-reach regions can enable safe, disruptive, and minimally invasive medical procedures. However, the soft body limits the ...integration of non-magnetic external stimuli sources on the robot, thereby restricting the functionalities of such robots. One such functionality is localised heat generation, which requires solid metallic materials for increased efficiency. Yet, using these materials compromises the compliance and safety of using soft robots. To overcome these competing requirements, we propose a pangolin-inspired bi-layered soft robot design. We show that the reported design achieves heating > 70 °C at large distances > 5 cm within a short period of time <30 s, allowing users to realise on-demand localised heating in tandem with shape-morphing capabilities. We demonstrate advanced robotic functionalities, such as selective cargo release, in situ demagnetisation, hyperthermia and mitigation of bleeding, on tissue phantoms and ex vivo tissues.
Electrical stimulation is a fundamental tool in studying neural circuits, treating neurological diseases, and advancing regenerative medicine. Injectable, free-standing piezoelectric particle systems ...have emerged as non-genetic and wireless alternatives for electrode-based tethered stimulation systems. However, achieving cell-specific and high-frequency piezoelectric neural stimulation remains challenging due to high-intensity thresholds, non-specific diffusion, and internalization of particles. Here, we develop cell-sized 20 μm-diameter silica-based piezoelectric magnetic Janus microparticles (PEMPs), enabling clinically-relevant high-frequency neural stimulation of primary neurons under low-intensity focused ultrasound. Owing to its functionally anisotropic design, half of the PEMP acts as a piezoelectric electrode via conjugated barium titanate nanoparticles to induce electrical stimulation, while the nickel-gold nanofilm-coated magnetic half provides spatial and orientational control on neural stimulation via external uniform rotating magnetic fields. Furthermore, surface functionalization with targeting antibodies enables cell-specific binding/targeting and stimulation of dopaminergic neurons. Taking advantage of such functionalities, the PEMP design offers unique features towards wireless neural stimulation for minimally invasive treatment of neurological diseases.
Purpose
Financial literacy has a strong influence on financial well-being, and it is a concept especially important for college students who start to develop their financial habits. The purpose of ...this paper is to examine the relationship between financial literacy, money attitudes and time preferences among Turkish university students.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 1,443 university students from 14 campuses in Turkey. Structural equation modeling methodology is employed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results suggest that students with higher financial knowledge scores have more favorable financial attitudes and exhibit more desirable financial behaviors. It is also demonstrated that financial attitude is positively related to financial behavior. Furthermore, a significant and negative relationship between the affective dimension of the money ethic construct and financial behavior is found. In contrast, the relationship between the behavioral dimension of money ethic and financial behavior is positive. It is further demonstrated that a present orientation leads to more negative financial attitudes.
Originality/value
This study will reveal the interrelationships among dimensions of financial literacy, money ethics and time preferences in an emerging economy with a relatively little experience with formal financial systems and unstable macroeconomic conditions.
The function of gene body DNA methylation in alternative splicing, and its relation to disease pathogenesis is not fully elucidated. The gene for familial Mediterranean fever (MEFV) encodes the pyrin ...protein and contains a 998 bp CpG island, covering the second exon, which is differentially methylated in FMF patients compared to healthy controls. Our further observation of increased exon 2-spliced MEFV transcript in leukocytes of FMF patients provoked us to test the role of exon methylation in alternative splicing using inflammatory cell culture models. First, in vitro exon methylation triggered an increased level of exon 2 exclusion using a splicing cassette in a promyelocytic leukemia cell line (HL-60). HL-60 cells subjected to methylating and demethylating agents, as well as cells differentiated to neutrophil-like cells, exhibited different levels of spliced/unspliced transcripts. We observed increased levels of spliced transcripts in neutrophil-like (p = 0.0005), activated (p = 0.0034) and methylated cells (p < 0.0001), whereas decreased levels in demethylated cells (p = 0.0126) compared to control untreated HL-60 cells. We also showed that the protein isoform of pyrin lacking the exon 2 has an adverse subcellular localization in neutrophil-like cells. Therefore, it remains in the cytoplasm rather than the nucleus. This may point to an epigenetic involvement in an important inflammatory gene.
Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is defined as self-inflicted behavior that causes bodily harm without suicidal intent. NSSI may be a precursor to other psychopathologies or co-occur as comorbidity. In ...this case series, we examined the development of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) in the follow-up of 5 young girls whose first presentation was NSSI and who were diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) at the psychiatric evaluation. As a result, we hypothesized that NSSI may be a precursor for the development of BN. Clinical interviews revealed that perceived family support by the adolescents were low and mothers had difficulty regulating emotions. We aimed to measure these variables by asking mother to fill out Toronto Alexithymia Scale and adolescents to fill out The Social Support Assessment Scale’s “support received from the family” part. Considering that adolescents can be timid at times and do not express such complaints unless asked, clinicians should be aware of this relationship and should keep the symptoms in mind during interviews in terms of preventive psychiatry.
Kendine İntihar Niyeti Olmadan Yaralama (NSSI), intihar niyeti olmaksızın bedensel zarara neden olan kendine zarar verme davranışı olarak tanımlanmaktadır. NSSI diğer psikopatolojilerin öncüsü olabilir veya komorbidite olarak ortaya çıkabilir. Bu vaka serisinde, ilk başvurusu NSSI olan ve psikiyatrik değerlendirmede Major Depresif Bozukluk (MDB) tanısı alan 5 genç kızın takibinde Bulimia Nervoza (BN) gelişimini inceledik. Sonuç olarak, NSSI'nin BN gelişimi için bir öncül olabileceği hipotezini öne sürdük. Klinik görüşmeler, ergenlerin algıladıkları aile desteğinin düşük olduğunu ve annelerin duygularını düzenlemekte güçlük çektiğini ortaya koymuştur. Annelerden Toronto Aleksitimi Ölçeğini, ergenlerden ise Sosyal Destek Değerlendirme Ölçeğinin "aileden alınan destek" bölümünü doldurmalarını isteyerek bu değişkenleri ölçmeyi amaçladık. Ergenlerin zaman zaman çekingen olabildikleri ve sorulmadıkça bu tür yakınmaları dile getirmedikleri düşünüldüğünde, klinisyenlerin bu ilişkinin farkında olmaları ve koruyucu psikiyatri açısından görüşmeler sırasında belirtileri akılda tutmaları gerekmektedir.
A growing number of studies in humans have linked chronic stress, particularly during early life, to telomere shortening and increased oxidative stress. The effect of stress on telomerase activity, ...however, is understudied. Given the importance of telomere attrition in a wide range of diseases and immunosenescence, further research to elucidate the mechanisms by which stress alters telomere dynamics is required. However, animal studies are lacking, and it is not clear whether widely used stress models reliably mimic the accelerated telomere shortening observed humans. To this end, we evaluated the effect of maternal separation with early weaning (MSEW) on telomere length, telomerase activity, and oxidative load in rats. A total of 45 animals were used, (17 control: 3 males and 11 females and 28 MSEW: 11 males, 17 females), which were then sacrificed one year after birth. Importantly, we determined that telomerase activity measured in plasma was significantly decreased in the MSEW group, along with a non-significant reduction in telomere length from whole blood cells. We also examined the levels of three oxidative markers: plasma malondialdehyde, glutathione in erythrocytes, and plasma catalase activity. Malondialdehyde was found to be elevated in the plasma, indicating increased lipid peroxidation. Interestingly, while the antioxidant glutathione was upregulated, catalase activity remained unchanged. Our findings indicate that the rat MSEW model induces chronic changes to telomere dynamics and oxidative load and can capitulate long term aspects of human childhood stress.
Food waste has been receiving much scholarly attention from the academic domain, non-profit organizations and governments as the environmental damages and financial losses it causes increase each ...day, prompting the decision-makers to take preventive measures. Most of the food waste occurs at the household-level, so understanding the causes of consumer-generated food waste will be more useful for prevention. This study aims to investigate both direct and indirect effects of consumers’ moral attitudes, knowledge of food conservation, eating habits, and shopping habits on food waste behavior. Structural equation modeling is employed to survey data gathered from 328 participants in Turkey. The results of the study reveal that moral attitudes have a direct effect on food waste behavior, eating habits, shopping habits, and knowledge of food conservation. Furthermore, shopping habits are shown to have a significant impact on food waste behavior. The analysis also provides evidence of indirect effects such that shopping habits mediate the relationship between moral attitudes and food waste behavior along with the relationship between knowledge of food conservation and food waste behavior. Moreover, the relationship between moral attitudes and shopping habits is mediated by knowledge of food conservation.
The results demonstrate that moral attitudes and shopping habits are two important determinants of food waste. When individuals believe throwing away food is wrong and doesn’t match with their self-image, the amount of food they waste decreases. Also, individuals who shop responsibly, and buy as much as they need, report less food waste. Efforts that aim to reduce food waste in households should focus on fostering strong moral attitudes against food waste and warning consumers about the negative consequences of excessive shopping.
•There is a negative relationship between moral attitudes and food waste behavior.•Consumers who do not shop more than needed, report less food waste.•Moral attitudes relate to knowledge of food conservation, shopping and eating habits.•Shopping habits have an indirect effect on food waste behavior.
Behçet’s syndrome (BS) is a systemic inflammatory disorder with unknown etiology. Investigation of proteome profiles of disease specific cells facilitates our understanding of the processes and ...related molecular pathways, especially in disorders like BS with complex inheritance pattern and clinical heterogeneity. In the current study, we evaluated the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) proteome of 59 patients with BS (33 in active and 26 in inactive phases) and of 28 healthy controls using two-dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE). Differentially expressed protein spots with at least twofold and/or statistically significant change (
p
≤ 0.05) between active BS vs inactive BS, and also active BS vs healthy controls were identified by mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF). Bioinformatic analyses revealed 16 differentially expressed proteins (12 of them in active vs inactive BS comparison, whereas 11 of them for active BS vs healthy control comparison) belonging to glycolysis, cytoskeleton organization, protein folding, and regulation of blood coagulation pathways. Stathmin (active BS vs inactive BS; fourfold, active BS vs healthy control; 4.7-fold) and WD repeat-containing protein-1 (active BS vs inactive BS; 2.7-fold, active BS vs healthy control; 2.7-fold), which are cytoskeleton-related proteins, were found to be lower in active patients compared to inactive patients and healthy control. Decreased levels of calreticulin (active BS vs inactive BS; 1.29-fold) and heat shock 70 kDa protein 8 (active BS vs healthy control; 1.5-fold) which are involved in protein folding and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress process, were observed in patients with active phase of BS. Down-regulation of protein folding and ER stress process proteins in BS patients may further support the involvement of ER stress in BS.
Pediatric rheumatology includes autoinflammatory monogenic diseases, autoinflammatory multifactorial diseases with complex inheritance, and diseases with uncertain clinical diagnosis or undefined ...conditions, even though they show signs of autoinflammation. Most of these diseases are systemic; it is important to diagnose patients promptly and definitively and to select proper treatment options based on the diagnoses. Clinical observation and acute-phase responses are usually sufficient for diagnosis; however, genetic analyses can provide supportive data for definite diagnosis and treatment, especially for rare monogenic diseases. As for multifactorial autoinflammatory diseases, susceptibility genes, and factors involved in the etiopathogenesis have not been fully identified. It is possible to identify disease genes and novel diseases, and lead to new treatment options by gene mapping studies and high-throughput screening strategies for multifactorial diseases and conditions with uncertain clinical characteristics. In this review, we discuss the three groups of autoinflammatory diseases and role of genetics in their diagnosis.
Systemic autoinflammatory diseases (sAIDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders, having monogenic inherited forms with overlapping clinical manifestations. More than half of patients do not carry ...any pathogenic variant in formerly associated disease genes. Here, we report a cross-sectional study on targeted Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) screening in patients with suspected sAIDs to determine the diagnostic utility of genetic screening. Fifteen autoinflammation/immune-related genes (
ADA2-CARD14
-
IL10RA
-
LPIN2
-
MEFV
-
MVK
-
NLRC4
-
NLRP12
-
NLRP3
-
NOD2
-
PLCG2
-
PSTPIP1
-
SLC29A3
-
TMEM173
-
TNFRSF1A
) were used to screen 196 subjects from adult/pediatric clinics, each with an initial clinical suspicion of one or more sAID diagnosis with the exclusion of typical familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients. Following the genetic screening, 140 patients (71.4%) were clinically followed-up and re-evaluated. Fifty rare variants in 41 patients (20.9%) were classified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic and 32 of those variants were located on the
MEFV
gene. We detected pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants compatible with the final diagnoses and inheritance patterns in 14/140 (10%) of patients for the following sAIDs: familial Mediterranean fever (
n
= 7), deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 (
n
= 2), mevalonate kinase deficiency (
n
= 2), Muckle–Wells syndrome (
n
= 1), Majeed syndrome (
n
= 1), and STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (
n
= 1). Targeted NGS panels have impact on diagnosing rare monogenic sAIDs for a group of patients. We suggest that
MEFV
gene screening should be first-tier genetic testing especially in regions with high carrier rates. Clinical utility of multi-gene testing in sAIDs was as low as expected, but extensive genome-wide familial analyses in combination with exome screening would enlighten additional genetic factors causing disease.
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