Superchaotropic Stabilization of Monomeric Protein States.

Chaotropes are long known to destabilize protein assemblies and folding. We report that a boron cluster ion, as a weakly coordinating superchaotrope, can paradoxically stabilize protein folding even under extended thermal stresses while broadly inhibiting specific and nonspecific protein-protein interactions at millimolar concentrations for multiple proteins. Thermodynamic and kinetic investigations suggest that the boron cluster ion reduced the association rates of protein association and rendered protein-associative interactions entropically unfavorable.

Use of artificial intelligence to support the assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews.

Introduction: Published systematic reviews display an heterogeneous methodological quality, which can impact decision-making. Large language models (LLMs) can support and make the assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews more efficient, aiding in the incorporation of their evidence in guideline recommendations. We aimed to develop a LLM-based tool for supporting the assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews.

Elements of Visuopathy of Prematurity Are Unified by Intermittent or Sustained Systemic Inflammation.

We hypothesize that the major pathologies associated with the visual system in preterm infants, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), cerebral visual impairment (CVI), and neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI), are unified by a common etio-pathogenesis involving intermittent and/or sustained systemic inflammation (ISSI). We refer to the resulting adverse visual outcomes (AVO) as "visuopathy of prematurity" (VOP). We present the published evidence supporting an etio-pathogenic paradigm centered around ISSI that begins before birth (early phase 1), is exacerbated in the newborn period (intermediate phase 2), and culminates in adverse visual and neurodevelopmental outcomes (late phase 3).

Solar Membrane Crystallizer with Ultralow Salt Adhesion for Zero Liquid Discharge of Hypersaline Wastewater.

Solar-driven zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) is a promising wastewater management strategy for freshwater recovery and salt resource harvesting. However, currently developed interfacial solar crystallizers fail to maintain high evaporation capability when treating hypersaline wastewater due to the salt scaling problem. The accumulated salt on the solar crystallizers hinders the efficiency of solar-driven ZLD.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals in maternal and umbilical cord plasma and their associations with birthweight in the GUSTO cohort.

Background: With daily exposure to multiple endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), understanding individualized co-exposure patterns could better identify chemicals that threaten health. This is particularly pertinent for the vulnerable fetus during in-utero development, where exposure can have long lasting health consequences. As there is limited information of EDC exposure in Asian maternal-offspring populations, this study aimed to (1) determine levels of a selected range of EDCs (focusing on Substances of Very High Concern by the European Chemical Agency) in maternal and corresponding cord blood plasma, (2) investigate the sociodemographic factors associated with plasma EDC concentrations, and (3) associate EDC-mixtures with birthweight, in a Singapore cohort.