Dual responsive albumin‑carbonized hemin nanohybrids for photochemotherapy of breast cancer: Insights from an optimized microfluidic device.

As a promising anticancer approach, phototherapeutics, in combination with current chemotherapeutic modalities, have recently been matured as an effective strategy to confront the prevailing shortcomings of conventional therapies. Herein, an anti-breast cancer photo-functional theranostic nanohybrid platform is constructed through a combination of light-responsive carbonized hemin nanoparticles (CHNPs), chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin (DOX) linked with a pH-sensitive linker, and tagged with folic acid for target specificity to form a nanohybrid platform (FCHNPs). The developed FCHNPs are monodispersed with an average size of ∼2 nm, with the capability to enhance oxidative stress, which could further be amplified under exposure to light.

Dynamic Lipidomic Remodeling and Clinical Correlations after Sleeve Gastrectomy in Obese Subjects.

Background: Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is an effective and the most commonly performed surgical intervention for obesity. However, detailed studies on the underlying mechanisms, particularly those involving lipid metabolism, remain limited. This study aimed to identify novel pathways associated with the metabolic efficacy of SG by assessing alterations in the serum lipidomic profiles of obese subjects following surgery.

Self-contracting, battery-free triboelectric wound healing strip with strong wet adhesion.

Conventional wound closure techniques, such as suturing and stapling, often cause infection, delayed healing, and tissue damage, particularly in fragile or compromised tissues. A sutureless, battery-free adhesive strip (SBF strip) is developed to integrate shape-memory-assisted mechanical approximation with impedance-matched electrical stimulation for enhanced tissue repair. The device incorporates a shape memory polymer (SMP) responsive at near-body temperature and a robust wet-adhesive interface (> 200 J m), enabling rapid attachment and uniform closure under mild heating (40 °C).

Behavior and Early-Age Performance of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Bus Pad.

The behavior of the cast-in-place continuously reinforced concrete (CRC) bus pad applied to bus stop pavement in a central bus-only lane was experimentally analyzed under environmental and moving vehicle loads, and the early-age performance of the CRC bus pad was evaluated using experimental data and finite element analysis results. Using various measurement sensors, the concrete slab strain, longitudinal steel bar strains, horizontal and vertical displacements, and crack behavior of the CRC bus pad due to environmental loads were measured, and the dynamic responses of the concrete slab and steel bars due to moving vehicle loads were also measured. Additionally, a method for converting strain gauge measurements of a cracked concrete slab to the strain of an uncracked concrete slab was also proposed.

Solvent Exclusion Effect on Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy.

Absorption spectroscopy of a solution containing an analyte solute typically uses the transmission through a solvent as a reference based on the assumption that the solvent does not absorb light. However, when a solvent absorbs light, the resulting absorbance becomes lower and often negative because of the reduced number of solvent molecules due to the space taken by solute molecules. The solvent exclusion (SE) effect is problematic for accurate quantitation and analysis across various absorption spectroscopies, especially near the broad, strong water absorption peaks.

Roles of spin-state dangling bonds and strain in the electronic structure of polytetrafluoroethylene for charge transfer from first-principles.

Utilizing first-principles density functional theory, we computed the surface electronic structure of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) slab with various dangling bond (DB) configurations. As the number of surface DBs increases, the lowest unoccupied level (LUL) associated with electron affinity (EA) decreases, resulting in a rise in the DBs' formation energy, indicating an unstable state and electron deficiency. Particularly in spinless DB states, only one localized lowest unoccupied surface state (LUSS) forms below the conduction band minimum (CBM).

The Efficiency of FLAIR Images for Hemodynamic Change After STA-MCA Bypass with Moyamoya Disease and Symptomatic Steno-Occlusive Disorder.

: Hyperintense vessels (HVs) visualized on FLAIR MRI are believed to reflect sluggish antegrade or retrograde flow in leptomeningeal collaterals that develop in response to major intracranial artery stenosis or occlusion. HV is frequently observed in conditions such as Moyamoya disease and symptomatic ICA/MCA steno-occlusion. However, the relationship between HV and cerebral hemodynamics-and the effect of STA-MCA bypass on HV-remains inadequately characterized.

Comparison of Non-invasive Methods for Diagnosis of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Before Bariatric Surgery and Postoperative Follow-up in Obese Patients.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the most accurate and useful non-invasive method to replace liver biopsy for the diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) before bariatric surgery and postoperative follow-up in morbidly obese patients.

Materials And Methods: This single-center study is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from 68 morbidly obese patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy with intraoperative liver biopsy. Preoperative non-invasive diagnostic methods, including fatty liver index, NAFLD fibrosis score, enhanced liver fibrosis score, FibroScan, magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)-PDFF, and magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) were compared against liver biopsy results.

Radiation dose reduction and image quality enhancement for patients unable to elevate their arms in chest CT: A comparative study.

Purpose: To propose a method to effectively reduce radiation dose while enhancing image quality in chest CT for patients unable to elevate their arms utilizing the air-gap technique.

Methods: Chest CT images were acquired in three positions: arms raised (control group, position A), arms lowered with the air-gap technique utilizing an in-house device (position B), and arms lowered without the device (position C). Data were categorized by body weight.

SlH3 and SlH4 promote multicellular trichome formation and elongation by upregulating woolly in tomato.

Trichomes are tiny outgrowths on the plant epidermis that serve defensive purposes against various stresses. While the regulatory mechanisms underlying unicellular trichome development are well understood, those governing multicellular trichome formation remain largely unexplored. In this study, we reveal a new regulatory pathway involving the () and genes, which encode C2H2 zinc finger proteins that participate in multicellular trichome development in tomato ().

AMPK activation by glycogen expenditure primes the exit of naïve pluripotency.

Embryonic and epiblast stem cells in pre-and post-implantation embryos are characterized by their naïve and primed states, respectively which represent distinct phases of pluripotency. Thus, cellular transition from naïve-to-primed pluripotency recapitulates a drastic metabolic and cellular remodeling after implantation to adapt to changes in extracellular conditions. Here, we found that inhibition of AMPK occurs during naïve transition with two conventional inhibitors of the MEK1 and GSK3β pathways.

Mammalian ubiquitous promoter isolated from proximal regulatory region of bovine MSTN gene.

Gene therapy is a promising method for treating inherited diseases by directly delivering the correct genetic material into patient cells. However, the limited packaging capacity of vectors poses a challenge. Minimizing promoter size is a viable strategy among various approaches to address this issue.

In Situ Experimental Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Airport Precast Concrete Pavement System Subjected to Environmental and Moving Airplane Loads.

The behavior of airport precast concrete pavement (APCP) involving new design and construction concepts was experimentally analyzed under environmental and moving airplane loads, and the long-term performance of the APCP was evaluated using fatigue failure analysis. The strain characteristics and curling behavior of the APCP under environmental loads were comprehensively analyzed. The APCP slabs exhibited a pronounced curling phenomenon similar to conventional concrete pavement slabs.

Benchtop IR Imaging of Live Cells: Monitoring the Total Mass of Biomolecules in Single Cells.

Absolute quantity imaging of biomolecules on a single cell level is critical for measurement assurance in biosciences and bioindustries. While infrared (IR) transmission microscopy is a powerful label-free imaging modality capable of chemical quantification, its applicability to hydrated biological samples remains challenging due to the strong IR absorption by water. Traditional IR imaging of hydrated cells relies on powerful light sources, such as synchrotrons, to mitigate the light absorption by water.

Enzymatic activity of fibroblast activation protein-α is essential for TGF-β1-induced fibroblastic differentiation of human periodontal ligament cells.

Human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs) contain multipotent postnatal stem cells that can differentiate into PDL fibroblasts, osteoblasts, and cementoblasts. Interaction between the extracellular environment and stem cells is an important factor for differentiation into other progenitor cells. To identify cell surface molecules that induce PDL fibroblastic differentiation, we developed a series of monoclonal antibodies against membrane/ECM molecules.

Quantum Cascade Laser Infrared Spectroscopy for Glycan Analysis of Glycoprotein Solutions.

Glycans are oligosaccharides attached to proteins or lipids and affect their functions, such as drug efficacy, structural contribution, metabolism, immunogenicity, and molecular recognition. Conventional glycosylation analysis has relied on destructive, slow, system-sensitive methods, including enzymatic reactions, chromatography, fluorescence labeling, and mass spectrometry. Herein, we propose quantum cascade laser (QCL) infrared (IR) spectroscopy as a rapid, nondestructive method to quantify glycans and their monosaccharide composition.

Biomechanical Evaluation of Mitral Valve Repair: Virtual Chordal Transposition to Restore Anterior Leaflet Prolapse.

Background: Surgical management of an anterior leaflet prolapse remains comparatively challenging and has led to the lack of any firmly established standard repair techniques, as seen in cases of posterior leaflet prolapse. Chordal transposition repair is widely acknowledged as a remarkably durable technique that utilizes the patient's native chordae. This study aims to evaluate and predict the biomechanical and functional characteristics of a normal mitral valve (MV) model and a pathological MV model featuring anterior ruptured mitral chordae tendineae (RMCT), and to assess the effectiveness of the chordal transposition repair in the pathological MV model.

Health-related quality of life instrument with 8 items to measure health-related quality of life among family caregivers of people with dementia: A pilot validation study.

Background: The health-related quality of life instrument with 8 items (HINT-8) was developed to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Korea. However, the HINT-8 has not yet been validated among the family caregivers of people with dementia (PwD).

Design: A cross-sectional pilot study.

Transcriptomic characteristics according to tumor size and SUV in papillary thyroid cancer patients.

The SUV is a measure of FDG uptake and is related with tumor aggressiveness in thyroid cancer, however, its association with molecular pathways is unclear. Here, we investigated the relationship between SUV and gene expression profiles in 80 papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients. We conducted an analysis of DEGs and enriched pathways in relation to SUV and tumor size.

Genetically engineered bacteriophages as novel nanomaterials: applications beyond antimicrobial agents.

Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are viruses that replicate in bacteria and archaea. Phages were initially discovered as antimicrobial agents, and they have been used as therapeutic agents for bacterial infection in a process known as "phage therapy." Recently, phages have been investigated as functional nanomaterials in a variety of areas, as they can function not only as therapeutic agents but also as biosensors and tissue regenerative materials.

The Effect of Intermittent Pneumatic Compression on Hemodynamics and Regional Cerebral Oxygen Saturation in Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery with Mild Hypercapnia in the Steep Reverse Trendelenburg Position.

Obesity negatively affects hemodynamics and cerebral physiology. We investigated the effect of the utilization of an intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) device on hemodynamics and cerebral physiology in patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery under general anesthesia with lung-protective ventilation. Sixty-four patients (body mass index > 30 kg/m) were randomly assigned to groups that received an IPC device (IPC group, = 32) and did not (control group, = 32).

Crosstalk between Signaling Pathways and Energy Metabolism in Pluripotency.

The sequential change from totipotency to multipotency occurs during early mammalian embryo development. However, due to the lack of cellular models to recapitulate the distinct potency of stem cells at each stage, their molecular and cellular characteristics remain ambiguous. The establishment of isogenic naïve and primed pluripotent stem cells to represent the pluripotency in the inner cell mass of the pre-implantation blastocyst and in the epiblast from the post-implantation embryo allows the understanding of the distinctive characteristics of two different states of pluripotent stem cells.