286 research outputs found
Bio-Dodecanedioic Acid (DDDA) Production
The demand for dodecanedioic acid (DDDA) is steadily increasing each year with demand expected to exceed 90.4 kilotons per month in 2023.1.1 DDDA is an intermediate chemical used in a variety of end products. Thus, the increase in DDDA demand can largely be attributed to increasing demand for manufacturing nylon, paints, adhesives, and powder coatings. Regionally, Asia Pacific has been observing the fastest growth of all regions at over 6% CAGR.1.2 The robust manufacturing base for nylon, along with a growing automotive industry in India and China, will propel DDDA growth into the next decade. The current synthesis process for DDDA relies on a multi step butadiene process. This pathway has large price volatility and supply/demand imbalances due to using a petrochemical feedstock. This proposed process outlines a biologically-sourced alternative to conventional DDDA production, and would be located in Malaysia to access regional organic feedstocks. The proposed DDDA plant is designed to produce 14,000 metric tons per year of DDDA using palm oil, and would be strategically located near rapidly expanding Asia Pacific markets. This project has an estimated IRR of 24.12%, ROI of 18.20%, and a NPV of approximately $54.1 MM
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Effects of Serotonin Transporter Gene Variation on Impulsivity Mediated by Default Mode Network: A Family Study of Depression
Serotonergic neurotransmission, potentially through effects on the brain’s default mode network (DMN), may regulate aspects of attention including impulse control. Indeed, genetic variants of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) have been implicated in impulsivity and related psychopathology. Yet it remains unclear the mechanism by which the 5-HTT genetic variants contribute to individual variability in impulse control. Here, we tested whether DMN connectivity mediates an association between the 5-HTT genetic variants and impulsivity. Participants (N = 92) were from a family cohort study of depression in which we have previously shown a broad distribution of 5-HTT variants. We genotyped for 5-HTTLPR and rs25531 (stratified by transcriptional efficiency: 8 low/low, 53 low/high, and 31 high/high), estimated DMN structural connectivity using diffusion probabilistic tractography, and assessed behavioral measures of impulsivity (from 12 low/low, 48 low/high, and 31 high/high) using the Continuous Performance Task. We found that low transcriptional efficiency genotypes were associated with decreased connection strength between the posterior DMN and the superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Path modeling demonstrated that decreased DMN–SFG connectivity mediated the association between low-efficiency genotypes and increased impulsivity. Taken together, this study suggests a gene-brain-behavior pathway that perhaps underlies the role of the serotonergic neuromodulation in impulse control
Perinatal maternal antibiotic exposure augments lung injury in offspring in experimental bronchopulmonary dysplasia
Copyright © 2020 the American Physiological Society. During the newborn period, intestinal commensal bacteria influence pulmonary mucosal immunology via the gut-lung axis. Epidemiological studies have linked perinatal antibiotic exposure in human newborns to an increased risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia, but whether this effect is mediated by the gut-lung axis is unknown. To explore antibiotic disruption of the newborn gut-lung axis, we studied how perinatal maternal antibiotic exposure influenced lung injury in a hyperoxia-based mouse model of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. We report that disruption of intestinal commensal colonization during the perinatal period promotes a more severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia phenotype characterized by increased mortality and pulmonary fibrosis. Mechanistically, metagenomic shifts were associated with decreased IL-22 expression in bronchoalveolar lavage and were independent of hyperoxia-induced inflammasome activation. Collectively, these results demonstrate a previously unrecognized influence of the gut-lung axis during the development of neonatal lung injury, which could be leveraged to ameliorate the most severe and persistent pulmonary complication of preterm birth
Associations Between Brain Structure and Connectivity in Infants and Exposure to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors During Pregnancy
Importance Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use among pregnant women is increasing, yet the association between prenatal SSRI exposure and fetal neurodevelopment is poorly understood. Animal studies show that perinatal SSRI exposure alters limbic circuitry and produces anxiety and depressive-like behaviors after adolescence, but literature on prenatal SSRI exposure in humans is limited and mixed.
Objective To examine associations between prenatal SSRI exposure and brain development using structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Design, Setting, and Participants A cohort study conducted at Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute included 98 infants: 16 with in utero SSRI exposure, 21 with in utero untreated maternal depression exposure, and 61 healthy controls. Data were collected between January 6, 2011, and October 25, 2016.
Exposures Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and untreated maternal depression.
Main Outcomes and Measures Gray matter volume estimates using structural MRI with voxel-based morphometry and white matter structural connectivity (connectome) using diffusion MRI with probabilistic tractography.
Results The sample included 98 mother (31 [32%] white, 26 [27%] Hispanic/Latina, 26 [27%] black/African American, 15 [15%] other) and infant (46 [47%] boys, 52 [53%] girls) dyads. Mean (SD) age of the infants at the time of the scan was 3.43 (1.50) weeks. Voxel-based morphometry showed significant gray matter volume expansion in the right amygdala (Cohen d = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.06-1.23) and right insula (Cohen d = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.26-1.14) in SSRI-exposed infants compared with both healthy controls and infants exposed to untreated maternal depression (P < .05; whole-brain correction). In connectome-level analysis of white matter structural connectivity, the SSRI group showed a significant increase in connectivity between the right amygdala and the right insula with a large effect size (Cohen d = 0.99; 95% CI, 0.40-1.57) compared with healthy controls and untreated depression (P < .05; whole connectome correction).
Conclusions and Relevance Our findings suggest that prenatal SSRI exposure has an association with fetal brain development, particularly in brain regions critical to emotional processing. The study highlights the need for further research on the potential long-term behavioral and psychological outcomes of these neurodevelopmental changes
Independent Field Audit of Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) in Charutar Region of Gujarat, India
Autonomic nervous system dysfunction predicts poor prognosis in patients with mild to moderate tetanus
BACKGROUND: Autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction is present in up to one third of patients with tetanus. The prognostic value of ANS dysfunction is known in severe tetanus but its value is not well established in mild to moderate tetanus. METHODS: Medical records of all patients admitted with tetanus at two academic tertiary care centers in Karachi, Pakistan were reviewed. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data was recorded and analyzed. ANS dysfunction was defined as presence of labile or persistent hypertension or hypotension and sinus tachycardia, tachyarrythmia or bradycardia on EKG. Patients were divided into two groups based on presence of ANS dysfunction (ANS group and non ANS group). Tetanus severity was classified on the basis of Ablett criteria. RESULTS: Ninety six (64 males; 32 females) patients were admitted with the diagnosis over a period of 10 years. ANS group had 31 (32%) patients while non ANS group comprised of 65 (68%) patients. Both groups matched for age, gender, symptom severity, use of tetanus immunoglobulin and antibiotics. Twelve patients in ANS group had mild to moderate tetanus (Ablett I and II) and 19 patients had severe/very severe tetanus (Ablett III and IV). Fifteen (50%) patients in ANS group required ventilation as compared to 28 (45%) in non-ANS group (p = 0.09). Fourteen (47%) patients died in ANS group as compared to 10 (15%) in non ANS group (p= 0.002). Out of those 14 patients died in ANS group, six patients had mild to moderate tetanus and eight patients had severe/ very severe tetanus. Major cause of death was cardiac arrhythmias (13/14; 93%) in ANS group and respiratory arrest (7/10; 70%) in non ANS group. Ten (33%) patients had complete recovery in ANS group while in non ANS group 35(48%) patients had complete recovery (p= 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: ANS dysfunction was present in one third of our tetanus population. 40% patients with ANS dysfunction had only mild to moderate tetanus. ANS dysfunction, irrespective of the need of mechanical ventilation or severity of tetanus, predicted poor outcome
Electrical Network-Based Time-Dependent Model of Electrical Breakdown in Water
A time-dependent, two-dimensional, percolative approach to model dielectric breakdown based on a network of parallel resistor–capacitor elements having random values, has been developed. The breakdown criteria rely on a threshold electric field and on energy dissipation exceeding the heat of vaporization. By carrying out this time-dependent analysis, the development and propagation of streamers and prebreakdown dynamical evolution have been obtained directly. These model simulations also provide the streamer shape, characteristics such as streamer velocity, the prebreakdown delay time, time-dependent current, and relationship between breakdown times, and applied electric fields for a given geometry. The results agree well with experimental data and reports in literature. The time to breakdown (tbr) for a 100 μm water gap has been shown to be strong function of the applied bias, with a 15–185 ns range. It is also shown that the current is fashioned not only by dynamic changes in local resistance, but that capacitive modifications arising from vaporization and streamer development also affect the transient behavior
A molecular assay for sensitive detection of pathogen-specific T-cells.
Here we describe the development and validation of a highly sensitive assay of antigen-specific IFN-γ production using real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) for two reporters--monokine-induced by IFN-γ (MIG) and the IFN-γ inducible protein-10 (IP10). We developed and validated the assay and applied it to the detection of CMV, HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) specific responses, in a cohort of HIV co-infected patients. We compared the sensitivity of this assay to that of the ex vivo RD1 (ESAT-6 and CFP-10)-specific IFN-γ Elispot assay. We observed a clear quantitative correlation between the two assays (P<0.001). Our assay proved to be a sensitive assay for the detection of MTB-specific T cells, could be performed on whole blood samples of fingerprick (50 uL) volumes, and was not affected by HIV-mediated immunosuppression. This assay platform is potentially of utility in diagnosis of infection in this and other clinical settings
Evidence-Based Guideline on Laparoscopy in Pregnancy: Commissioned by the British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE) Endorsed by the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG).
Laparoscopy is widely utilised to diagnose and treat acute and chronic, gynaecological and general surgical conditions. It has only been in recent years that laparoscopy has become an acceptable surgical alternative to open surgery in pregnancy. To date there is little clinical guidance pertaining to laparoscopic surgery in pregnancy. This is why the BSGE commissioned this guideline. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Cochrane library were searched up to February 2017 and evidence was collated and graded following the NICE-approved process. The conditions included in this guideline are laparoscopic management of acute appendicitis, acute gall bladder disease and symptomatic benign adnexal tumours in pregnancy. The intended audience for this guideline is obstetricians and gynaecologists in secondary and tertiary care, general surgeons and anaesthetists. However, only laparoscopists who have adequate laparoscopic skills and who perform complex laparoscopic surgery regularly should undertake laparoscopy in pregnant women, since much of the evidence stems from specialised centres
Quantiferon Gold-in-tube assay for TB screening in HIV infected children: influence of quantitative values
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