SREBP1c-CRY1 signalling represses hepatic glucose production by promoting FOXO1 degradation during refeeding

published_or_final_versio

Benchmark performance of low-cost Sb2Se3 photocathodes for unassisted solar overall water splitting

Determining cost-effective semiconductors exhibiting desirable properties for commercial photoelectrochemical water splitting remains a challenge. Herein, we report a Sb2Se3 semiconductor that satisfies most requirements for an ideal high-performance photoelectrode, including a small band gap and favourable cost, optoelectronic properties, processability, and photocorrosion stability. Strong anisotropy, a major issue for Sb2Se3, is resolved by suppressing growth kinetics via close space sublimation to obtain high-quality compact thin films with favourable crystallographic orientation. The Sb2Se3 photocathode exhibits a high photocurrent density of almost 30mAcm(-2) at 0V against the reversible hydrogen electrode, the highest value so far. We demonstrate unassisted solar overall water splitting by combining the optimised Sb2Se3 photocathode with a BiVO4 photoanode, achieving a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 1.5% with stability over 10h under simulated 1 sun conditions employing a broad range of solar fluxes. Low-cost Sb2Se3 can thus be an attractive breakthrough material for commercial solar fuel production. While photoelectrochemical water splitting offers an integrated means to convert sunlight to a renewable fuel, cost-effective light-absorbers are rare. Here, authors report Sb2Se3 photocathodes for high-performance photoelectrochemical water splitting devices

Barriers for progress in salt reduction in the general population. An international study

Salt reduction is important for reducing hypertension and the risk of cardiovascular events, nevertheless worldwide salt intakes are above recommendations. Consequently strategies to reduce intake are required, however these require an understanding of salt intake behaviours to be effective. As limited information is available on this, an international study was conducted to derive knowledge on salt intake and associated behaviours in the general population. An online cohort was recruited consisting of a representative sample from Germany, Austria, United States of America, Hungary, India, China, South Africa, and Brazil (n=6987; aged 18-65. years; age and gender stratified). Participants completed a comprehensive web-based questionnaire on salt intake and associated behaviours. While salt reduction was seen to be healthy and important, over one third of participants were not interested in salt reduction and the majority were unaware of recommendations. Salt intake was largely underestimated and people were unaware of the main dietary sources of salt. Participants saw themselves as mainly responsible for their salt intake, but also acknowledged the roles of others. Additionally, they wanted to learn more about why salt was bad for health and what the main sources in the diet were. As such, strategies to reduce salt intake must raise interest in engaging in salt reduction through improving understanding of intake levels and dietary sources of salt. Moreover, while some aspects of salt reduction can be globally implemented, local tailoring is required to match level of interest in salt reduction. These findings provide unique insights into issues surrounding salt reduction and should be used to develop effective salt reduction strategies and/or policies. © 2013 The Authors

Weak up-regulation of serum response factor in gastric ulcers in patients with co-morbidities is associated with increased risk of recurrent bleeding

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serum response factor (SRF) is crucial for gastric ulcer healing process. The study determined if gastric ulcer tissues up-regulate SRF and if such up-regulation correlated with co-morbidities and the risk of recurrent bleeding.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ulcer and non-ulcer tissues were obtained from 142 patients with active gastric ulcers for SRF expression assessed by immunohistochemistry. Based on the degree of SRF expression between these two tissue types, SRF up-regulation was classified as strong, intermediate, and weak patterns. The patients were followed-up to determine if SRF up-regulation correlated to recurrent bleeding.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Gastric ulcer tissues had higher SRF expression than non-ulcer tissues (<it>p </it>< 0.05). Patients with strong SRF up-regulation had lower rates of stigmata of recent hemorrhage (SRH) on the ulcer base than the others (<it>p </it>< 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression confirmed that co-morbidities and weak SRF up-regulation were two independent factors of recurrent gastric ulcer bleeding (<it>p </it>< 0.05). Combining both factors, there was an 8.29-fold (95% CI, 1.31~52.62; <it>p </it>= 0.03) higher risk of recurrent gastric ulcer bleeding.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>SRF expression is higher in gastric ulcer tissues than in non-ulcer tissues. Weak SRF up-regulation, combined with the presence of co-morbidities, increase the risk of the recurrent gastric ulcer bleeding.</p

Description and evaluation of an EBM curriculum using a block rotation

BACKGROUND: While previous authors have emphasized the importance of integrating and reinforcing evidence-based medicine (EBM) skills in residency, there are few published examples of such curricula. We designed an EBM curriculum to train family practice interns in essential EBM skills for information mastery using clinical questions generated by the family practice inpatient service. We sought to evaluate the impact of this curriculum on interns, residents, and faculty. METHODS: Interns (n = 13) were asked to self-assess their level of confidence in basic EBM skills before and after their 2-week EBM rotation. Residents (n = 21) and faculty (n = 12) were asked to assess how often the answers provided by the EBM intern to the inpatient service changed medical care. In addition, residents were asked to report how often they used their EBM skills and how often EBM concepts and tools were used in teaching by senior residents and faculty. Faculty were asked if the EBM curriculum had increased their use of EBM in practice and in teaching. RESULTS: Interns significantly increased their confidence over the course of the rotation. Residents and faculty felt that the answers provided by the EBM intern provided useful information and led to changes in patient care. Faculty reported incorporating EBM into their teaching (92%) and practice (75%). Residents reported applying the EBM skills they learned to patient care (86%) and that these skills were reinforced in the teaching they received outside of the rotation (81%). All residents and 11 of 12 faculty felt that the EBM curriculum had improved patient care. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first published EBM curriculum using an individual block rotation format. As such, it may provide an alternative model for teaching and incorporating EBM into a residency program

Diversity of Antibiotic-Active Bacteria Associated with the Brown Alga Laminaria saccharina from the Baltic Sea

Bacteria associated with the marine macroalga Laminaria saccharina, collected from the Kiel Fjord (Baltic Sea, Germany), were isolated and tested for antimicrobial activity. From a total of 210 isolates, 103 strains inhibited the growth of at least one microorganism from the test panel including Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria as well as a yeast. Most common profiles were the inhibition of Bacillus subtilis only (30%), B. subtilis and Staphylococcus lentus (25%), and B. subtilis, S. lentus, and Candida albicans (11%). In summary, the antibiotic-active isolates covered 15 different activity patterns suggesting various modes of action. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities &gt;99%, 45 phylotypes were defined, which were classified into 21 genera belonging to Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that four isolates possibly represent novel species or even genera. In conclusion, L. saccharina represents a promising source for the isolation of new bacterial taxa and antimicrobially active bacteria

Reduced Physiological Complexity in Robust Elderly Adults with the APOE ε4 Allele

BACKGROUND:It is unclear whether the loss of physiological complexity during the aging process is due to genetic variations. The APOE gene has been studied extensively in regard to its relationship with aging-associated medical illness. We hypothesize that diminished physiological complexity, as measured by heart rate variability, is influenced by polymorphisms in the APOE allele among elderly individuals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:A total of 102 robust, non-demented, elderly subjects with normal functions of daily activities participated in this study (97 males and 5 females, aged 79.2+/-4.4 years, range 72-92 years). Among these individuals, the following two APOE genotypes were represented: epsilon4 non-carriers (n = 87, 85.3%) and epsilon4 carriers (n = 15, 14.7%). Multi-scale entropy (MSE), an analysis used in quantifying complexity for nonlinear time series, was employed to analyze heart-rate dynamics. Reduced physiological complexity, as measured by MSE, was significantly associated with the presence of the APOE epsilon4 allele in healthy elderly subjects, as compared to APOE epsilon4 allele non-carriers (24.6+/-5.5 versus 28.9+/-5.2, F = 9.429, p = 0.003, respectively). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:This finding suggests a role for the APOE gene in the diminished physiological complexity seen in elderly populations

A Piezoelectric Immunosensor Using Hybrid Self-Assembled Monolayers for Detection of Schistosoma japonicum

BACKGROUND: The parasite Schistosoma japonicum causes schistosomiasis disease, which threatens human life and hampers economic and social development in some Asian countries. An important lesson learned from efforts to reduce the occurrence of schistosomiasis is that the diagnostic approach must be altered as further progress is made towards the control and ultimate elimination of the disease. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using mixed self-assembled monolayer membrane (mixed SAM) technology, a mixture of mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and mercaptoethanol (ME) was self-assembled on the surface of quartz crystals by gold-sulphur-bonds. Soluble egg antigens (SEA) of S. japonicum were then cross-linked to the quartz crystal using a special coupling agent. As compared with the traditional single self-assembled monolayer immobilization method, S. japonicum antigen (SjAg) immobilization using mixed self-assembled monolayers exhibits much greater immunoreactivity. Under optimal experimental conditions, the detection range is 1:1500 to 1:60 (infected rabbit serum dilution ratios). We measured several infected rabbit serum samples with varying S. japonicum antibody (SjAb) concentrations using both immunosensor and ELISA techniques and then produced a correlation analysis. The correlation coefficients reached 0.973. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have developed a new, simple, sensitive, and reusable piezoelectric immunosensor that directly detects SjAb in the serum. This method may represent an alternative to the current diagnostic methods for S. japonicum infection in the clinical laboratory or for analysis outside the laboratory

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal