Single atom alloy surface analogs in Pd0.18Cu15 nanoparticles for selective hydrogenation reactions.

We report a novel synthesis of nanoparticle Pd-Cu catalysts, containing only trace amounts of Pd, for selective hydrogenation reactions. Pd-Cu nanoparticles were designed based on model single atom alloy (SAA) surfaces, in which individual, isolated Pd atoms act as sites for hydrogen uptake, dissociation, and spillover onto the surrounding Cu surface. Pd-Cu nanoparticles were prepared by addition of trace amounts of Pd (0.

Molecular-scale perspective of water-catalyzed methanol dehydrogenation to formaldehyde.

Methanol steam reforming is a promising reaction for on-demand hydrogen production. Copper catalysts have excellent activity and selectivity for methanol conversion to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This product balance is dictated by the formation and weak binding of formaldehyde, the key reaction intermediate.

Controlling a spillover pathway with the molecular cork effect.

Spillover of reactants from one active site to another is important in heterogeneous catalysis and has recently been shown to enhance hydrogen storage in a variety of materials. The spillover of hydrogen is notoriously hard to detect or control. We report herein that the hydrogen spillover pathway on a Pd/Cu alloy can be controlled by reversible adsorption of a spectator molecule.

Increase in transaminase levels following the use of raltegravir in a woman with a high HIV viral load at 35 weeks of pregnancy.

Background: Despite the efficacy of raltegravir in reducing viral load in HIV-infected patients, evidence for its safety in late pregnancy is lacking. A high rate of placental transfer was recently demonstrated.

Case: A treatment-naïve 34-year-old HIV-1-positive woman of African origin began treatment with zidovudine/lamivudine, lopinavir/ritonavir, and raltegravir at 35 weeks of pregnancy.

Failed epidural analgesia in a parturient with advanced ankylosing spondylitis: a novel explanation.

Purpose: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic progressive multisystemic disease. Patients with AS present a specific set of anesthesia-related challenges, and the parturient with AS presents particular anesthetic considerations. We report our experience with a parturient with advanced AS and offer a novel explanation for the high incidence of epidural failures in this patient population.

[Intraoperative complications of neck surgery].

Intraoperative complications of neck surgery are uncommon and rarely life-threatening and exact anatomical knowledge and precise dissection are most important for prevention. Anatomical variants (e.g.

[Who will be the first-born baby boomers at risk of financial vulnerability in retirement? A comparison of Quebec and Ontario].

The oncoming retirement of baby boomers has governments worried. Will individual baby boomers demonstrate the ability to prepare financially for their retirement? Well-being in retirement depends largely on financial preparedness during working life. Those baby boomers who are the most vulnerable at the end of their working lives are more likely to become vulnerable during retirement.

Imputation of missing variance data using non-linear mixed effects modelling to enable an inverse variance weighted meta-analysis of summary-level longitudinal data: a case study.

Missing variances, on the basis of the summary-level data, can be a problem when an inverse variance weighted meta-analysis is undertaken. A wide range of approaches in dealing with this issue exist, such as excluding data without a variance measure, using a function of sample size as a weight and imputing the missing standard errors/deviations. A non-linear mixed effects modelling approach was taken to describe the time-course of standard deviations across 14 studies.

Haemophilus pittmaniae respiratory infection in a patient with siderosis: a case report.

Introduction: Haemophilus pittmaniae was described in 2005 as a new species distantly related to Haemophilus parainfluenzae. This member of the human saliva microbiota has also been further isolated from various body fluids without formal description of the patients.

Case Presentation: We report the case of H.

Impact of scale space search on age- and gender-related changes in MRI-based cortical morphometry.

In magnetic resonance imaging based brain morphometry, Gaussian smoothing is often applied to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and to increase the detection power of statistical parametric maps. However, most existing studies used a single smoothing filter without adequately justifying their choices. In this article, we want to determine the extent for which performing a morphometry analysis using multiple smoothing filters, namely conducting a scale space search, improves or decreases the detection power.

Isolated metal atom geometries as a strategy for selective heterogeneous hydrogenations.

Facile dissociation of reactants and weak binding of intermediates are key requirements for efficient and selective catalysis. However, these two variables are intimately linked in a way that does not generally allow the optimization of both properties simultaneously. By using desorption measurements in combination with high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy, we show that individual, isolated Pd atoms in a Cu surface substantially lower the energy barrier to both hydrogen uptake on and subsequent desorption from the Cu metal surface.

The influence of certain taxonomic and environmental parameters on biomass production and triterpenoid content in the leaves of Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. from Madagascar.

Centella asiatica (Apiaceae family; Talapetraka in Malagasy) is a tropical and subtropical plant with leaves containing glycotriterpenoids (asiaticosides) used in traditional and modern medicine. C. asiatica is collected exclusively in natural stands.

Inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3 activity triggers an apoptotic response in pancreatic cancer cells through JNK-dependent mechanisms.

Recent evidences suggest that the activity of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) contributes to the tumorigenic potential of pancreatic cancer cells through modulation of cell proliferation and survival. However, further investigations are needed to identify GSK3-dependent mechanisms involved in the control of pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and survival. This study was undertaken to provide further support for a role of GSK3 in pancreatic cancer cell growth as well as to identify new cellular and molecular mechanisms involved.

Constraining groundwater modeling with magnetic resonance soundings.

Magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) is a noninvasive geophysical method that allows estimating the free water content and transmissivity of aquifers. In this article, the ability of MRS to improve the reliability of a numerical groundwater model is assessed. Thirty-five sites were investigated by MRS over a ∼5000 km(2) domain of the sedimentary Continental Terminal aquifer in SW Niger.

Cytosolic phospholipase A(2)α protects against ischemia/reperfusion injury in the heart.

Studies with sPLA(2) Group X, and cPLA(2) α gene-targeted mice suggest that absence of sPLA(2) Group X results in protection from ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in the heart, and absence of cPLA(2) α Group IV is protective in the brain. Although latter studies might suggest a similar deleterious role for cPLA(2) α in I/R injury in the heart, the pathophysiology of stroke is intricately related to excitotoxicity and cannot necessarily be extrapolated to the heart. We report here that unlike findings in the brain, cPLA(2) α((-/-)) mice have exaggerated injury following I/R in vivo.

Anisotropic diffusion of tensor fields for fold shape analysis on surfaces.

The folding pattern of the human cortical surface is organized in a coherent set of troughs and ridges, which mark important anatomical demarcations that are similar across subjects. Cortical surface shape is often analyzed in the literature using isotropic diffusion, a strategy that is questionable because many anatomical regions are known to follow the direction of folds. This paper introduces anisotropic diffusion kernels to follow neighboring fold directions on surfaces, extending recent literature on enhancing curve-like patterns in images.

Constitutive activation of the MEK/ERK pathway inhibits intestinal epithelial cell differentiation.

The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK cascade regulates intestinal epithelial cell proliferation. Indeed, while barely detectable in differentiated cells of the villi, ERK1/2-activated forms are detected in the nucleus of undifferentiated human intestinal crypt cells. In addition, we and others have reported that ERKs are selectively inactivated during enterocyte differentiation.

Novel HIV-1 recombinant forms in antenatal cohort, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Near full-length genomes of 4 unclassified HIV-1 variants infecting patients enrolled in an antenatal cohort in Canada were obtained by sequencing. All 4 variants showed original recombination profiles, including A1/A2/J, A1/D, and A1/G/J/CRF11_cpx structures. Identification of these variants highlights the growing prevalence of unique recombinant forms of HIV-1 in North America.

'Shape effects' in metal oxide supported nanoscale gold catalysts.

We report the activity of shape-controlled metal oxide (CeO(2), ZnO and Fe(3)O(4)) supported gold catalysts for the steam reforming of methanol (SRM) and the water gas shift (WGS) reactions. Metal oxide nanoshapes, prepared by controlled hydrolysis and thermolysis methods, expose different crystal surfaces, and consequently disperse and stabilize gold differently. We observe that similar to gold supported on CeO(2) shapes exposing the {110} and {111} surfaces, gold supported on the oxygen-rich ZnO {0001} and Fe(3)O(4) {111} surfaces shows higher activity for the SRM and WGS reactions.

A novel and efficient model of coronary artery ligation and myocardial infarction in the mouse.

Rationale: coronary artery ligation to induce myocardial infarction (MI) in mice is typically performed by an invasive and time-consuming approach that requires ventilation and chest opening (classic method), often resulting in extensive tissue damage and high mortality. We developed a novel and rapid surgical method to induce MI that does not require ventilation.

Objective: the purpose of this study was to develop and comprehensively describe this method and directly compare it to the classic method.

The serine protease inhibitor serpinE2 is a novel target of ERK signaling involved in human colorectal tumorigenesis.

Background: Among the most harmful of all genetic abnormalities that appear in colorectal cancer (CRC) development are mutations of KRAS and its downstream effector BRAF as they result in abnormal extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK) signaling. In a previous report, we had shown that expression of a constitutive active mutant of MEK1 (caMEK) in normal rat intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) induced morphological transformation associated with epithelial to mesenchymal transition, growth in soft agar, invasion and metastases in nude mice. Results from microarrays comparing control to caMEK-expressing IECs identified the gene encoding for serpinE2, a serine protease inhibitor, as a potential target of activated MEK1.

Investigation into the relationship between the gravity vector and the flow vector to improve performance in two-phase continuous flow biodiesel reactor.

The following study analyzes the performance of a continuous flow biodiesel reactor/separator. The reactor achieves high conversion of vegetable oil triglycerides to biodiesel while simultaneously separating co-product glycerol. The influence of the flow direction, relative to the gravity vector, on the reactor performance was measured.