Even in the context of hydrocarbons' general resistance to selective functionalization, methane's volatility and strong bonds pose a particular challenge. We report here that silver complexes bearing ...perfluorinated indazolylborate ligands catalyze the reaction of methane (CH4) with ethyl diazoacetate (N2CHCO2Et) to yield ethyl propionate (CH3CH2CO2Et). The use of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as the solvent is key to the reaction's success. Although the catalyst is only sparingly soluble in CH4/CO2 mixtures, optimized conditions presently result in a 19% yield of ethyl propionate (based on starting quantity of the diazoester) at 40°C over 14 hours. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Introduction
The most widespread venous sites of access for implantation intravenous implantable cardiac electronic device (CIED) are the cephalic and subclavian vein. Fluoroscopy‐guided axillary ...venous access is an alternative, but efficacy and safety have not been studied under equal conditions. The aim of the present study is to compare the efficacy and safety of fluoroscopy‐guided axillary vs cephalic vein access in CIED implant.
Methods and Results
Two hundred and forty patients were randomized to receive CIED implantation by the fluoroscopy‐guided axillary vein access vs cephalic vein access. The implantation success, the procedure times and the complications were recorded. A comparison of the results of operators was made. The success rate of the randomized venous access was superior in the axillary group than in cephalic (98.3% vs 76.7%, P < .001). Time to access (6.8 ± 3.1 minute vs 13.1 ± 5.8 minutes, P < .001) and implantation duration was significantly shorter in the axillary group than in the cephalic group (42.3 ± 11.6 minutes vs 50.5 ± 13.3 minutes, P < .001). There was no difference in the incidence of complication and inter‐operator success rate, complications rate and time to access.
Conclusion
The fluoroscopy‐guided axillary venous access is safe and has a better success rate and faster execution time compared with the cephalic vein access. When the results were compared among the study operators, neither in the axillary nor in the cephalic group there were differences in the success rate, the complication rate, and the time to access.
Trial Registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03860090
An increasing number of tumors, including breast cancer, overexpress proteins of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family. The interaction between family members activates signaling ...pathways that promote tumor progression and resistance to treatment. Human epidermal growth factor receptor type II (HER2) positive breast cancer represents a clinical challenge for current therapy. It has motivated the development of novel and more effective therapeutic EGFR family target drugs, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). This review focuses on the effects of three TKIs mostly studied in HER2- positive breast cancer, lapatinib, gefitinib and neratinib. Herein, we discuss the mechanism of action, therapeutic advantages and clinical applications of these TKIs. To date, TKIs seem to be promising therapeutic agents for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast tumors, either as monotherapy or combined with other pharmacological agents.
The aim of the study is mainly to investigate the influence of hotel customers' perception and awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) concerning the environmental practices of hotels on ...the image of the establishments and on repeat behaviour intention (RBI) by said customers. Accordingly, a research model is established which allows an understanding of the underlying mechanism of perceived CSR practices, CSR awareness, hotel image and RBI. The growing interest shown by practitioners to understand the mechanism to achieve sustainable competitive advantage for hotels through their environmental policies and the scarce number of studies analysing customer CSR awareness and its influence on customer green hotels' engagement justify this study. Hence, the study strives to overcome this gap in the CSR literature. Data were collected from hotel guests who have stayed at green hotels in Spain over the last 12 months. The research model was estimated using a variance‐based structural equation modelling approach. The findings achieved and future research avenues derived from the study are of great value for both theorists and managers to achieve a sustainable development. The research model proposed can be applied to other tourist agents other than hotels and provide valuable knowledge for practitioners to understand to what extent their managerial CSR practices and their effort to communicate them are perceived by their stakeholders, which in turn influence the stakeholder engagments with those agents with a greater commitment to the environment.
Nanoparticle (NP)-based lateral flow assay (LFA) technology has outstanding characteristics that make it ideal for point-of-care bioanalytical applications. However, LFAs still have important ...limitations, especially related to sensitivity, which is in general worse than that of other well-established bioassays such as ELISA or PCR. Many efforts have been made for enhancing the sensitivity of LFAs, mainly actuating on the nanoparticle labels and on alternative optical detection modes. However, strip pads modification for such a purpose is an incipient vast field of research. This article gives a brief overview on the recent advances proposed for signal amplification actuating on different pads and the general architecture of the LFA strips. Such strategies offer universal tools that can be adapted to any LFA, independently of the kind of sample, analyte, and label. The principles of the different strategies developed to achieve novel signal amplification and sensitive detection are discussed, and some examples of relevant approaches are highlighted, together with future prospects and challenges.
Graphical abstract
The prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is very heterogeneous. There are no data on its frequency in the general population in Spain. The aim of EPISER2016 study was to estimate the prevalence of ...PsA in people aged greater than or equal to20 years in Spain. Cross-sectional multicenter population-based study. Subjects from all the autonomous communities in Spain were randomly selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling. Participants in each of the municipalities randomly selected for the study were administered a telephone-based questionnaire to screen for the study diseases. If the participant reported being previously diagnosed, rheumatologists from the participant's reference hospital confirmed the diagnosis based on a review of the clinical history. Subjects not previously diagnosed but whose screening result was positive based on symptoms received a second telephone call from the investigating rheumatologist in order to evaluate the suspicion. If the suspicion remained, an appointment was made at the reference hospital to complete the diagnostic confirmation process according to CASPAR criteria. To calculate the prevalence and its 95% confidence interval (CI), the sample design was taken into account and weighing was calculated considering age, sex and geographic origin. The sample comprised 4916 subjects. The prevalence of PsA was 0.58% (95%CI: 0.38-0.87). All but 1 of the 27 cases (96.30%) had been diagnosed prior to EPISER2016. The prevalence of PsA in Spain was among the highest reported to date, only below that reported in Norway (0.67%) and slightly higher than that reported in Italy (0.42%).
Effects of extrusion cooking and low-temperature storage on the physicochemical changes and resistant starch (RS) content in cornstarch were evaluated. The cornstarch was conditioned at 20%-40% ...moisture contents and extruded in the range 90-130 °C and at screw speeds in the range 200-360 rpm. The extrudates were stored at 4 °C for 120 h and then at room temperature. The water absorption, solubility index, RS content, viscoelastic, thermal, and microstructural properties of the extrudates were evaluated before and after storage. The extrusion temperature and moisture content significantly affected the physicochemical properties of the extrudates before and after storage. The RS content increased with increasing moisture content and extrusion temperature, and the viscoelastic and thermal properties showed related behaviors. Microscopic analysis showed that extrusion cooking damaged the native starch structure, producing gelatinization and retrogradation and forming RS. The starch containing 35% moisture and extruded at 120 °C and 320 rpm produced the most RS (1.13 g/100 g) after to storage at low temperature. Although the RS formation was low, the results suggest that extrusion cooking could be advantageous for RS production and application in the food industry since it is a pollution less, continuous process requiring only a short residence time.
Abstract
Background
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most prevalent mental health problems. Patients with GAD have unmet needs related to the information received about their ...disorder, its treatments and their participation in the decision-making process. The aim of this study is to develop and assess the acceptability of a patient decision aid (PtDA) for patients with GAD.
Method
The PtDA was developed following the International Patient Decision Aid Standards. The recommendations of the Spanish clinical practice guideline (CPG) for patients with GAD were used as the basis. The first prototype was developed by an expert committee, further improvements were made with patients (n = 2), clinical experts (n = 13) and the project management group (n = 7). The acceptability of this second draft was assessed by patients non-involved in the previous phases (n = 11).
Results
The final PtDA version included a brief description of GAD and its treatments. Most participants agreed that the PtDA was easy to use, visually appealing and useful. At least half of the participants learned new things about treatments and adverse effects.
Conclusions
A PtDA was developed for patients with GAD based on recommendations from the Spanish CPG. It was improved and accepted by patients and clinical experts involved. An evaluation of its effectiveness on the shared decision-making process during the clinical encounter is planned.
The role of NOTCH signaling in adipogenesis is highly controversial, with data indicating null, positive or negative effects on this differentiation process. We hypothesize that these contradictory ...results could be due to the different global NOTCH signaling levels obtained in different experimental settings, because of a specific modulation of NOTCH receptors' activity by their ligands. We have previously demonstrated that DLK1 and DLK2, two non-canonical NOTCH1 ligands that inhibit NOTCH1 signaling in a dose-dependent manner, modulate the adipogenesis process of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. In this work, we show that over-expression of any of the four NOTCH receptors enhanced adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. We also determine that DLK proteins inhibit not only the activity of NOTCH1, but also the activity of NOTCH2, 3 and 4 receptors to different degrees. Interestingly, we have observed, by different approaches, that NOTCH1 over-expression seems to stimulate the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells towards a brown-like adipocyte phenotype, whereas cells over-expressing NOTCH2, 3 or 4 receptors or DLK proteins would rather differentiate towards a white-like adipocyte phenotype. Finally, our data also demonstrate a complex feed-back mechanism involving Notch and Dlk genes in the regulation of their expression, which suggest that a precise level of global NOTCH expression and NOTCH-dependent transcriptional activity of specific targets could be necessary to determine the final phenotype of 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
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