Bidirectional two colored light emission from stress-activated ZnS-microparticles-embedded polydimethylsiloxane elastomer films

Bidirectional two-colored mechanoluminescent light emission has been demonstrated by unifying two polydimethylsiloxane elastomer layers functionalized with zinc sulfide doped with Cu (ZnS:Cu) or Cu and Mn (ZnS:Cu,Mn). The bilayered composite films are simply fabricated by dispensing uncured ZnS:Cu,Mn + PDMS onto previously spin-coated and ardened ZnS:Cu + PDMS film. The robust PDMS-PDMS bonding yields a ilm which can simultaneously emit light with color coordinates of (0.25, 0.56) and (0.50, 0.48), similar to the intrinsic colors of ZnS:Cu and ZnS:Cu,Mn, respectively. Composite films can emit light in upper and lower directions without fracture when it is stretched. © 2013 Optical Society of America.1

Elevation of serum lactate dehydrogenase in patients with pectus excavatum

INTRODUCTION: Pectus excavatum is the most common congenital chest wall deformity and the depression of the anterior chest wall, which compresses the internal organs. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of pectus excavatum on blood laboratory findings. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From March 2011 to December 2011, 71 patients with pectus excavatum who visited Seoul Saint Mary Hospital for Nuss procedure were reviewed and analyzed. The blood samples were routinely taken at the day before surgery and pectus bar removal was usually performed in 2 to 3 years after Nuss procedure. To investigate the effects on blood laboratory findings, preoperative routine blood laboratory data and postoperative changes of abnormal laboratory data were analyzed. RESULTS: Only lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), one of 26 separate routine laboratory tests, was abnormal and significantly elevated than normal value (age <10, p = 0.008; age ≥10, p < 0.001). However, there was no significant correlation between LDH levels and severities of pectus excavatum. The symmetric subgroup had significantly higher LDH level than the asymmetric subgroup (p <0.001) and there was a significant decrease of LDH level after correction of deformity (p = 0.017). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, only LDH, one of the routine laboratory tests, was significantly elevated than normal value, which was thought to be caused by etiologies of pectus excavatum and the compression of the internal organs. Further studies on LDH including isoenzyme studies in patients with pectus excavatum will be needed, and these studies will provide a deeper and wider comprehension of pectus excavatum

Permanent Pacemaker for Syncope after Heart Transplantation with Bicaval Technique

Sinus node dysfunction occurs occasionally after heart transplantation and may be caused by surgical trauma, ischemia to the sinus node, rejection, drug therapy, and increasing donor age. However, the timing and indication of permanent pacemaker insertion due to sinus node dysfunction following heart transplantation is contentious. Here, we report a case of a permanent pacemaker insertion for syncope due to sinus arrest after heart transplantation, even with a bicaval technique, which has been known to associate with few incidences of sinus node dysfunction

Secondary Amyloidosis Associated with Multiple Sclerosis

Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Secondary amyloidosis can occur as a complication of chronic systemic inflammatory and infectious diseases. Until now there has been no report of secondary amyloidosis associated with MS. We report herein a case of renal biopsy-proven secondary amyloidosis in a patient with MS. Case Report A 41-year-old woman with MS was hospitalized due to aggravated quadriparesis and edema in both lower extremities. Laboratory findings showed nephrotic-range proteinuria and hypoalbuminemia. A percutaneous renal biopsy procedure was performed, the results of which revealed secondary amyloid-A-type amyloidosis associated with MS. Conclusions This is the first report of secondary amyloidosis associated with MS. J Clin Neurol 2009;5:146-14

Locking-to-unlocking system is an efficient strategy to design DNA/silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) probe for human miRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNA molecules, are important biomarkers for research and medical purposes. Here, we describe the development of a fast and simple method using highly fluorescent oligonucleotide-silver nanocluster probes (DNA/AgNCs) to efficiently detect specific miRNAs. Due to the great sequence diversity of miRNAs in humans and other organisms, a uniform strategy for miRNA detection is attractive. The concept presented is an oligonucleotide-based locking-to-unlocking system that can be endowed with miRNA complementarity while maintaining the same secondary structure. The locking-to-unlocking system is based on fold-back anchored DNA templates that consist of a cytosine-rich loop for AgNCs stabilization, an miRNA recognition site and an overlap region for hairpin stabilization. When an miRNA is recognized, fluorescence in the visible region is specifically extinguished in a concentration-dependent manner. Here, the exact composition of the fold-back anchor for the locking-to-unlocking system has been systematically optimized, balancing propensity for loop-structure formation, encapsulation of emissive AgNCs and target sensitivity. It is demonstrated that the applied strategy successfully can detect a number of cancer related miRNAs in RNA extracts from human cancer cell lines

Microvasculature remodeling in the mouse lower gut during inflammaging

Inflammaging is defined as low-grade, chronic, systemic inflammation in aging, in the absence of overt infection. Age-associated deterioration of gastrointestinal function could be ascribed to the inflammaging, although evidence is yet to emerge. Here we show that microvessels in aging mouse intestine were progressively deprived of supportive structures, microvessel-associated pericytes and adherens junction protein vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin, and became leaky. This alteration was ascribed to up-regulation of angiopoetin-2 in microvascular endothelial cells. Up-regulation of the angiopoietin-2 was by TNF-α, originated from M2-like residential CD206 + macrophages, proportion of which increases as animal ages. It was concluded that antigenic burdens encountered in intestine throughout life create the condition of chronic stage of inflammation, which accumulates M2-like macrophages expressing TNF-α. The TNF-α induces vascular leakage to facilitate recruitment of immune cells into intestine under the chronic inflammatory setting. © Author(s) 2017.1

Hyperphosphatemia and risks of acute kidney injury, end-stage renal disease, and mortality in hospitalized patients

Background Hyperphosphatemia is associated with vascular calcification and bone mineral disorders and is a major concern among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the relationship between hyperphosphatemia and renal outcome in non-CKD patients has not been studied. Furthermore, the clinical implications of hyperphosphatemia in relation to the risks of acute kidney injury (AKI), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and mortality after hospitalization remain unresolved. Methods A total of 20,686 patients (aged ≥18 years) admitted to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from January 2013 to December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into quartiles according to serum phosphorus level at the time of admission. The odds ratios (ORs) for AKI and hazard ratios (HRs) for ESRD and all-cause mortality were calculated after adjustment of multiple covariates. Results AKI developed in 2319 patients (11.2%), with higher ORs for patients in the third and fourth quartiles (1.4 [1.24–1.68] and 2.8 [2.44–3.22], respectively) compared with the first quartile group. During a median follow-up period of 4.0 years, 183 patients (0.88%) developed ESRD and 3675 patients (17.8%) died. Patients in the fourth quartile had higher risks of ESRD and mortality than patients in the first quartile (HRs, 2.3 [1.46–3.75] and 1.4 [1.22–1.49], respectively). These trends remained consistent in patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate > 60 ml/min/1.73 m2. Conclusions Hyperphosphatemia is related to the risks of AKI, ESRD, and mortality, and it may therefore be necessary to monitor serum phosphorus level in hospitalized patients, irrespective of kidney function.This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03031642 to S.S. Han) and the grant from the NRF (2017R1A2B4005251 to S. Kim), which had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the manuscript

3D garment digitisation for virtual wardrobe using a commodity depth sensor

5-Aminovaleric acid (5AVA) is an important five-carbon platform chemical that can be used for the synthesis of polymers and other chemicals of industrial interest. Enzymatic conversion of L-lysine to 5AVA has been achieved by employing lysine 2-monooxygenase encoded by the davB gene and 5-aminovaleramidase encoded by the davA gene. Additionally, a recombinant Escherichia coli strain expressing the davB and davA genes has been developed for bioconversion of L-lysine to 5AVA. To use glucose and xylose derived from lignocellulosic biomass as substrates, rather than L-lysine as a substrate, we previously examined direct fermentative production of 5AVA from glucose by metabolically engineered E. coli strains. However, the yield and productivity of 5AVA achieved by recombinant E. coli strains remain very low. Thus, Corynebacterium glutamicum, a highly efficient L-lysine producing microorganism, should be useful in the development of direct fermentative production of 5AVA using L-lysine as a precursor for 5AVA. Here, we report the development of metabolically engineered C. glutamicum strains for enhanced fermentative production of 5AVA from glucose.Various expression vectors containing different promoters and origins of replication were examined for optimal expression of Pseudomonas putida davB and davA genes encoding lysine 2-monooxygenase and delta-aminovaleramidase, respectively. Among them, expression of the C. glutamicum codon-optimized davA gene fused with His-Tag at its N-Terminal and the davB gene as an operon under a strong synthetic H promoter (plasmid p36davAB3) in C. glutamicum enabled the most efficient production of 5AVA. Flask culture and fed-batch culture of this strain produced 6.9 and 19.7\ua0g/L (together with 11.9\ua0g/L glutaric acid as major byproduct) of 5AVA, respectively. Homology modeling suggested that endogenous gamma-aminobutyrate aminotransferase encoded by the gabT gene might be responsible for the conversion of 5AVA to glutaric acid in recombinant C. glutamicum. Fed-batch culture of a C. glutamicum gabT mutant-harboring p36davAB3 produced 33.1\ua0g/L 5AVA with much reduced (2.0\ua0g/L) production of glutaric acid.Corynebacterium glutamicum was successfully engineered to produce 5AVA from glucose by optimizing the expression of two key enzymes, lysine 2-monooxygenase and delta-aminovaleramidase. In addition, production of glutaric acid, a major byproduct, was significantly reduced by employing C. glutamicum gabT mutant as a host strain. The metabolically engineered C. glutamicum strains developed in this study should be useful for enhanced fermentative production of the novel C5 platform chemical 5AVA from renewable resources