Kinetic Modeling for Microwave-Enhanced Degradation of Methylene Blue Using Manganese Oxide

This study was originally performed to compare the MnO2-based degradation of aqueous methylene blue (MB) under microwave irradiation- (MW-) enhanced and conventional heating- (CH-) enhanced conditions. The degradation process and kinetics were investigated to elucidate the microwave effect on the reaction. The results showed that all three tested conditions, sole MnO2, MnO2/CH, and MnO2/MW, followed the third-order (second upon MB and first upon MnO2) kinetic model. However, a higher degradation rate of MB was available under the MW-enhanced process, which implies that the “athermal effect” of MW might be of more benefit for the generation of electrophilic oxygen ions (, , and ) to degrade MB. The results showed that the degradation percentage of MB could reach 100%, corresponding to 92% total organic carbon (TOC) removal under microwave irradiation at pH 7.20 for 10 min

Somatomotor-Visual Resting State Functional Connectivity Increases After Two Years in the UK Biobank Longitudinal Cohort

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional connectivity (FC) have been used to follow aging in both children and older adults. Robust changes have been observed in children, where high connectivity among all brain regions changes to a more modular structure with maturation. In older adults, prior work has identified changes in connectivity associated with the default mode network (DMN); other work has used brain age to predict pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease. In this work, we find an increasing connectivity between the Somatomotor (SMT) and Visual (VIS) Networks using the Power264 atlas in a longitudinal cohort of the UK Biobank (UKB). This cohort consists of 2,722 subjects, with scans being taken an average of two years apart. The average connectivity increase between SMT-VIS is 6.8% compared to the younger scan baseline (from $\rho=0.39$ to $\rho=0.42$), and occurs in male, female, older subject ($>65$ years old), and younger subject ($<55$ years old) groups. Among all inter-network connections, this average SMT-VIS connectivity is the best predictor of relative scan age, accurately predicting which scan is older 57% of the time. Using the full FC and a training set of 2,000 subjects, one is able to predict which scan is older 82.5% of the time when using the difference of FC between the two scans as input to a classifier. This previously under-reported relationship may shed light on normal changes in aging brain FC, identifies a potential confound for longitudinal studies, and proposes a new area for investigation, specifically the SMT-VIS connectivity.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 3 table

Small trocar site hernia after laparoscopy

AbstractThis review article is attempted to review the cases of 5-mm trocar site hernias (TSHs) after laparoscopic surgery and identify the risks associated with incarceration. We searched the English literature on the PubMed website using the key words “trocar site hernia” and “5 mm”. We evaluated a total of 24 cases of 5-mm TSHs and analyzed and results showed that 17 (71%) and 7 (29%) resulted from gynecologic and gastrointestinal surgeries, respectively. The majority were found at the lateral abdomen (87.5%) and recognized within 2 weeks (87.5%). The most frequently herniated organ (n = 14) was the small bowel. Up to 62.5% of cases (n = 15) were repaired by exploratory laparotomy, and 25% (n = 6) required resection of herniated organs secondary to incarceration. The cases with incarceration were detected at 4.3 ± 2.2 days post-operation and those without incarceration at 47.4 days post-operation. No risk factors could be identified to show a correlation between 5-mm TSHs and incarceration. We concluded that immediate 1--2-week postoperative care is of most importance, since the majority of 5-mm trocar site hernias with or without incarceration occurred within this period

Impact of ovarian preservation in women with endometrial cancer

AbstractBackgroundBilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) is standardly performed in the treatment of endometrial cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of ovarian preservation on the outcome of patients with endometrial cancer.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was performed using the 2000–2010 database of endometrial cancer patients who were treated at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Information regarding patient age, pathologic reports, and follow-up results was abstracted from medical records.ResultsFive hundred and twenty-nine patients were reviewed in this study. Mean age and follow-up duration were 55.7 ± 11.4 years and 37.5 ± 30.1 months, respectively. The median disease-free survival was 31.2 months (range 0.2–126.9 months). There were no significant differences in disease-free survival between stage I patients with ovarian preservation versus those with oophorectomy (p = 0.473). In a multivariate Cox model, ovarian preservation had no effect on disease-free survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.72; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.48–15.59]; however, it was not significantly related to stage and para-aortic lymph node involvement.ConclusionOvarian preservation may be considered in premenopausal women with early-stage low-risk endometrial cancer

Genetic Analysis of Floral Symmetry Transition in African Violet Suggests the Involvement of Trans-acting Factor for CYCLOIDEA Expression Shifts

With the growing demand for its ornamental uses, the African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha) has been popular owing to its variations in color, shape and its rapid responses to artificial selection. Wild type African violet (WT) is characterized by flowers with bilateral symmetry yet reversals showing radially symmetrical flowers such as dorsalized actinomorphic (DA) and ventralized actinomorphic (VA) peloria are common. Genetic crosses among WT, DA, and VA revealed that these floral symmetry transitions are likely to be controlled by three alleles at a single locus in which the levels of dominance are in a hierarchical fashion. To investigate whether the floral symmetry gene was responsible for these reversals, orthologs of CYCLOIDEA (CYC) were isolated and their expressions correlated to floral symmetry transitions. Quantitative RT-PCR and in situ results indicated that dorsal-specific SiCYC1s expression in WT S. ionantha (SCYC1A and SiCYC1B) shifted in DA with a heterotopically extended expression to all petals, but in VA, SiCYC1s' dorsally specific expressions were greatly reduced. Selection signature analysis revealed that the major high-expressed copy of SCYC1A had been constrained under purifying selection, whereas the low-expressed helper SiCYC1B appeared to be relaxed under purifying selection after the duplication into SCYC1A and SiCYC1B. Heterologous expression of SCYC1A in Arabdiopsis showed petal growth retardation which was attributed to limited cell proliferation. While expression shifts of SCYC1A and SiCYC1B correlate perfectly to the resulting symmetry phenotype transitions in F1s of WT and DA, there is no certain allelic combination of inherited SiCYC1s associated with specific symmetry phenotypes. This floral transition indicates that although the expression shifts of SCYC1A/1B are responsible for the two contrasting actinomorphic reversals in African violet, they are likely to be controlled by upstream trans-acting factors or epigenetic regulations

Synergistic Apoptosis-Inducing Antileukemic Effects of Arsenic Trioxide and Mucuna macrocarpa

The objective of this study was to examine the potential of enhancing the antileukemic activity of arsenic trioxide (ATO) by combining it with a folk remedy, crude methanolic extract of Mucuna macrocarpa (CMEMM). Human leukemia cells HL-60, Jurkat, and Molt-3 were treated with various doses of ATO, CMEMM, and combinations thereof for 24 and 48 h. Results indicated that the combination of 2.5 μM ATO and 50 μg/mL CMEMM synergistically inhibited cell proliferation in HL-60 and Jurkat cell lines. Apoptosis triggered by ATO/CMEMM treatment was confirmed by accumulation of cells in the sub-G1 phase in cell cycle analyses, characteristic apoptotic nuclear fragmentation, and increased percentage of annexin V-positive apoptotic cells. Such combination treatments also led to elevation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The antioxidants N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), butylated hydroxytoluene, and α-tocopherol prevented cells from ATO/CMEMM-induced apoptosis. The ATO/CMEMM-induced activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9 can be blocked by NAC. In summary, these results suggest that ATO/CMEMM combination treatment exerts synergistic apoptosis-inducing effects in human leukemic cells through a ROS-dependent mechanism and may provide a promising antileukemic approach in the future