关键词： deep eutectic solvents   dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction   green chemistry   supramolecular solvents  

摘要： Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction is one of the most widely used microextraction techniques currently in the analytical chemistry field, mainly due to its simplicity and rapidity. The operational mode of this approach has been constantly changing since its introduction, adapting to new trends and applications. Most of these changes are related to the nature of the solvent employed for the microextraction. From the classical halogenated solvents (e.g., chloroform or dichloromethane), different alternatives have been proposed in order to obtain safer and non-pollutants microextraction applications. In this sense, low-density solvents, such as alkanols, switchable hydrophobicity solvents, and ionic liquids were the first and most popular replacements for halogenated solvents, which provided similar or better results than these classical dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction solvents. However, despite the good performances obtained with low-density solvents and ionic liquids, researchers have continued investigating in order to obtain even greener solvents for dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. For that reason, in this review, the evolution over the last five years of the three types of solvents already mentioned and two of the most promising solvent alternatives (i.e., deep eutectic solvents and supramolecular solvents), have been studied in detail with the purpose of discussing which one provides the greenest alternative.

关键词： children   COVID-19   kawasaki disease   macrophage activation syndrome   multisystem inflammatory syndrome   SARS-CoV-2   toxic shock syndrome  

摘要： One of the most challenging and intriguing phenomena observed during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Patients with this condition present with some clinical features similar to those of Kawasaki disease (KD) and display signs and symptoms that are uncommon or rarely occur in this disorder, such as gastrointestinal complaints and myocarditis, often leading to myocardial failure and shock. In addition, patients' age is older than that of children with classic KD. Management is based on administering intravenous immunoglobulin, glucocorticoids, and anakinra in the most severe instances. It is still debated whether MIS-C and KD are different illnesses or represent a disease continuum.

关键词： color Doppler ultrasonography   moyamoya disease   steno-occlusion   terminal internal carotid artery  

摘要： Objective To investigate color Doppler ultrasonography criteria and its value in assessing the steno-occlusion of the terminal internal carotid artery in moyamoya disease. Methods According to the digital subtraction angiography findings, patients were divided into three groups: occlusion of the terminal internal carotid artery, >50% stenosis, and <= 50% stenosis. We measured the terminal and proximal internal carotid artery parameters of each group using transcranial and cervical color Doppler sonography. Results Blood flow signals in 12 terminal internal carotid arteries were absent, which were verified as occlusion by digital subtraction angiography. Parameters were obtained in the remaining 159 terminal/proximal internal carotid arteries to predict cutoffs for >50% stenosis and occlusion. For >50% stenosis, mean flow velocity >88.50 cm/s in the terminal internal carotid artery could achieved the highest receiver operating characteristic curve area of 0.776 with 62.50% sensitivity, 88.15% specificity, 48.39% positive predictive values, 92.97% negative predictive value, and 84.27% overall accuracy. For the occlusion, mean flow velocity <49.50 cm/s in the terminal internal carotid artery achieve the highest receiver operating characteristic curve area of 0.734 with 55.56% sensitivity, 83.81% specificity, 63.83% positive predictive values, 78.57% negative predictive value, and 74.21% overall accuracy. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve cutoffs for other parameters were less than 0.7. Conclusion Mean flow velocity of terminal internal carotid artery provides useful diagnostic information for detecting steno-occlusion in moyamoya disease. It may be used as an alternative tool to evaluate steno-occlusion of the terminal internal carotid artery in moyamoya disease.

关键词： ADAS   data fusion   fission   ontology   context-aware system   safe driving   green driving  

摘要： Advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) is an electronic system that helps the driver navigate roads safely. A typical ADAS, however, is suited to specific brands of vehicle and, due to proprietary restrictions, has non-extendable features. Project CASA is an alternative, low-cost generic ADAS. It is an app deployable on smartphone or tablet. The real-time data needed by the app to make sense of its environment are stored in the vehicle or on the cloud, and are accessible as web services. They are used to determine the current driving context, and, if needed, decide actions to prevent an accident or keep road navigation safe. Project CASA is an undertaking of a consortium of industrial and academic partners. A use case scenario is tested in the laboratory (virtual) and on the road (actual) to validate the appropriateness of CASA. It is a contribution to safe driving. CASA's contribution also lies in its approach in the semantic modeling of the context of the environment, the vehicle and the driver, and on the modeling of rules for fusion of data and fission process yielding an action to be implemented. In addition, CASA proposes a secured means of transmitting data using light, via light fidelity (LiFi), itself an alternative means of wireless vehicle-smartphone communication.

关键词： counter current extraction   homogeneous liquid-liquid microextraction   salting-out   sample preparation   sugaring-out  

摘要： Liquid-liquid extraction is a widely used technique of sample preparation in biomedical analysis. In spite of the high pre-concentration capacities of liquid-liquid extraction, it suffers from a number of limitations including time and effort consumption, large organic solvent utilization, and poor performance in highly polar analytes. Homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction is an alternative sample preparation technique that overcomes some drawbacks of conventional liquid-liquid extraction, and allows employing greener organic solvents in sample treatment. In homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction, a homogeneous phase is formed between the aqueous sample and the water-miscible extractant, followed by chemically or physically induced phase separation. To form the homogeneous phase, aqueous samples are mixed with water-miscible organic solvents, water-immiscible solvents/cosolvents, surfactants, or smart polymers. Then, phase separation is induced chemically (adding salt, sugar, or buffer) or physically (changing temperature or pH). This mode is rapid, sustainable, and cost-effective in comparison with other sample preparation techniques. Moreover, homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction is more suitable for the extraction of delicate macromolecules such as enzymes, hormones, and proteins and it is more compatible with liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry, which is a vital technique in metabolomics and proteomics. In this review, the principle, types, applications, automation, and technical aspects of homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction are discussed.

关键词： cancer   complementary therapies   decision making   medical oncology   clinical practice guideline   health care  

摘要： Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is common among individuals with cancer, but many choose not to discuss CAM with health-care providers (HCPs). Moreover, there is variability in the provision of evidence-informed decision making about CAM use. A clinical practice guideline was developed to standardize how oncology HCPs address CAM use as well as to inform how individuals with cancer can be supported in making evidence-informed decisions about CAM. An integrative review of the literature, from inception to December 31, 2018, was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and AMED databases. Eligible articles included oncology HCPs' practice related to discussing, assessing, documenting, providing decision support, or offering information about CAM. Two authors independently searched the literature, and selected articles were summarized. Recommendations for clinical practice were formulated from the appraised evidence and clinical experiences of the research team. An expert panel reviewed the guideline for usability and appropriateness and recommendations were finalized. The majority of the 30 studies eligible for inclusion were either observational or qualitative, with only 3 being reviews and 3 being experimental. From the literature, 7 practice recommendations were formulated for oncology HCPs regarding how to address CAM use by individuals with cancer, including communicating, assessing, educating, decision coaching, documenting, active monitoring, and adverse event reporting. It is imperative for safe and comprehensive care that oncology HCPs address CAM use as part of standard practice. This clinical practice guideline offers directions on how to support evidence-informed decision making about CAM among individuals with cancer.

关键词： cicatricial conjunctivitis   corticotropin   mucous membrane pemphigoid   ocular surface disease   refractory  

摘要： Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report the clinical course and outcome of patients with refractory ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) treated by repository corticotropin injection (RCI). Methods: Patients with biopsy-proven ocular MMP treated with RCI from 3 tertiary medical centers were evaluated. Medical records between January 2013 and January 2021 were reviewed and deidentified to retrieve relevant disease-related data. Primary outcome measures included conjunctival inflammatory activity, change in Foster clinical conjunctival scarring staging after RCI treatment, and the development of ocular and systemic complications. Results: Included were 15 patients (10 women and 5 men;36-95 yrs of age) with a mean follow-up of 4.5 years. Most of the patients (80%) had Foster stage 3 at presentation, and all patients had active MMP. Each patient had failed to respond to at least 1 immunomodulatory drug during the follow-up, and 9 (60%) patients had treatment failure of at least 2 other agents before the use of RCI. The mean duration of RCI treatment was 21 months (range, 3-54 mo). Foster stage did not change in any of the 15 patients at the last follow-up. Nine patients continued RCI therapy at the last follow-up, and in all of them, the disease activity of MMP was well controlled. No serious adverse events because of RCI were documented during the follow-up in any treated patient. Conclusions: RCI may serve as an alternative or an adjunctive treatment in patients with severe and refractory ocular MMP. Treatment with RCI seems to be safe and well-tolerated.

关键词： Human Genetics   Molecular Medicine   Gene Function   Metabolic Diseases  

摘要： The discovery of introns over four decades ago revealed a new vision of genes and their interrupted arrangement. Throughout the years, it has appeared that introns play essential roles in the regulation of gene expression. Unique processing of excised introns through the formation of lariats suggests a widespread role for these molecules in the structure and function of cells. In addition to rapid destruction, these lariats may linger on in the nucleus or may even be exported to the cytoplasm, where they remain stable circular RNAs (circRNAs). Alternative splicing (AS) is a source of diversity in mature transcripts harboring retained introns (RI-mRNAs). Such RNAs may contain one or more entire retained intron(s) (RIs), but they may also have intron fragments resulting from sequential excision of smaller subfragments via recursive splicing (RS), which is characteristic of long introns. There are many potential fates of RI-mRNAs, including their downregulation via nuclear and cytoplasmic surveillance systems and the generation of new protein isoforms with potentially different functions. Various reports have linked the presence of such unprocessed transcripts in mammals to important roles in normal development and in disease-related conditions. In certain human neurological-neuromuscular disorders, including myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2), frontotemporal dementia/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FTD/ALS) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), peculiar processing of long introns has been identified and is associated with their pathogenic effects. In this review, we discuss different mechanisms involved in the processing of introns during AS and the functions of these large sections of the genome in our biology.

关键词： Scanning transmission electron microscopy   Electron beam damage   Scanning strategies  

摘要： The highly energetic electrons in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) can alter or even completely destroy the structure of samples before sufficient information can be obtained. This is especially problematic in the case of zeolites, organic and biological materials. As this effect depends on both the electron beam and the sample and can involve multiple damage pathways, its study remained difficult and is plagued with irreproducibility issues, circumstantial evidence, rumors, and a general lack of solid data. Here we take on the experimental challenge to investigate the role of the STEM scan pattern on the damage behavior of a commercially available zeolite sample with the clear aim to make our observations as reproducible as possible. We make use of a freely programmable scan engine that gives full control over the tempospatial distribution of the electron probe on the sample and we use its flexibility to obtain multiple repeated experiments under identical conditions comparing the difference in beam damage between a conventional raster scan pattern and a newly proposed interleaved scan pattern that provides exactly the same dose and dose rate and visits exactly the same scan points. We observe a significant difference in beam damage for both patterns with up to 11 % reduction in damage (measured from mass loss). These observations demonstrate without doubt that electron dose, dose rate and acceleration voltage are not the only parameters affecting beam damage in (S)TEM experiments and invite the community to rethink beam damage as an unavoidable consequence of applied electron dose.

关键词： identical twin   MIS-C   epigenetic factors