Colonization and diversification processes are responsible for the distinctiveness of island biotas, with Madagascar standing out as abiodiversity hotspot exceptionally rich in species and endemism. Regardless of its significance, the evolutionary history and diversification drivers of Madagascar's flora remain understudied. Here we focus on Helichrysum (Compositae, Gnaphalieae) to investigate the evolutionary and biogeographic origins of the Malagasy flora.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study presents the development of zirconium polycarboxylate gel systems as substrates for advanced fluorescence sensing devices. Zirconium-based metal-organic gels (MOGs) offer a promising alternative due to the robustness of the Zr-O bond, which provides enhanced chemical stability. In this work, zirconium polycarboxylate gels were synthesized using green solvents in a rapid room temperature method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Hundreds of high-confidence autism genes have been identified, yet the relevant etiological mechanisms remain unclear. Gene ontology analyses have repeatedly identified enrichment of proteins with annotated functions in gene expression regulation and neuronal communication. However, proteins are often pleiotropic and these annotations are inherently incomplete.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObesity is one of the non-communicable chronic diseases with the highest increase in recent decades in Latin America, affecting children, adolescents, and especially young adults. Forty percent of adults have a body mass index greater than 25 kg/m2. Numerous studies have demonstrated a relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, diabetes, sleep apnea, and oncological diseases, among others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncorporation of amino acid capping molecules (alanine (Ala), methionine (Met), phenylalanine (Phe), tryptophan (Trp), tyrosine (Tyr), and valine (Val)) in their zwitterionic form into archetypal [Zr(μ-O)(μ-OH)] clusters creates supramolecular frameworks in which the assembly of these highly charged discrete units with chloride counterions provides a unique combination of porosity, chirality, and proton conductivity. The supramolecular frameworks assembled from these cluster entities (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe therapeutic application of drugs often faces challenges due to non-specific distribution, inadequate dosification and degradation, which limits their efficacy. Two primary strategies are employed to overcome these issues: the use of derivatives of the active substances and incorporation of those into porous materials. The latter, involving materials such as zeolites, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and hydrogels, has shown promising results in protecting the active ingredients from degradation and enabling a controlled release.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we aim to enhance genetic algorithms (GAs) by integrating a dynamic model based on biological life cycles. This study addresses the challenge of maintaining diversity and adaptability in GAs by incorporating stages of birth, growth, reproduction, and death into the algorithm's framework. We consider an asynchronous execution of life cycle stages to individuals in the population, ensuring a steady-state evolution that preserves high-quality solutions while maintaining diversity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of a series of metal-organic gels (MOGs) constructed from titanium(IV)-oxo clusters and dicarboxylato linkers (benzene-1,4-dicarboxylato and 2-aminobenzene-1,4-dicarboxylato) are described. All the MOGs exhibit a microstructure comprised of metal-organic nanoparticles intertwined into a highly meso-/macroporous structure, as demonstrated by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy and gas adsorption isotherms. Comprehensive chemical characterization enabled the estimation of the complex formula for these defective materials, which exhibit low crystallinity and linker vacancies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConventional gut-on-chip (GOC) models typically represent the epithelial layer of the gut tissue, neglecting other important components such as the stromal compartment and the extracellular matrix (ECM) that play crucial roles in maintaining intestinal barrier integrity and function. These models often employ hard, flat porous membranes for cell culture, thus failing to recapitulate the soft environment and complex 3D architecture of the intestinal mucosa. Alternatively, hydrogels have been recently introduced in GOCs as ECM analogs to support the co-culture of intestinal cells in-like configurations, and thus opening new opportunities in the organ-on-chip field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: HER2DX, a multianalyte genomic test, has been clinically validated to predict breast cancer recurrence risk (relapse risk score), the probability of achieving pathological complete response post-neoadjuvant therapy (pCR likelihood score), and individual ERBB2 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels in patients with early-stage human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. This study delves into the comprehensive analysis of HER2DX's analytical performance.
Materials And Methods: Precision and reproducibility of HER2DX risk, pCR, and ERBB2 mRNA scores were assessed within and between laboratories using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor tissues and purified RNA.
Inorg Chem
March 2024
Downshifters refer to compounds with the capacity to absorb UV photons and transform them into visible light. The integration of such downshifters has the potential to improve the efficiency of commercial photovoltaic modules. Initially, costly lanthanide derivatives and organic fluorescent dyes were introduced, resulting in a heightened module efficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeletion of functional sequence is predicted to represent a fundamental mechanism of molecular evolution. Comparative genetic studies of primates have identified thousands of human-specific deletions (hDels), and the -regulatory potential of short (≤31 base pairs) hDels has been assessed using reporter assays. However, how structural variant-sized (≥50 base pairs) hDels influence molecular and cellular processes in their native genomic contexts remains unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Multiple myeloma is a hematologic malignancy characterized by its association with a range of cardiovascular comorbidities, most notably heart failure. Our study aims to investigate the impact of heart failure on individuals who are hospitalized for multiple myeloma. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we assembled a cohort of patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data from 2019 to 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe useful concepts of reticular chemistry, rigid and predictable metal nodes together with strong and manageable covalent interactions between metal centers and organic linkers, have made the so-called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) a flourishing area of enormous applicability. In this work, the extension of similar strategies to supramolecularly assembled metal-organic materials has allowed us to obtain a family of isoreticular compounds of the general formula [Cu(μ-adeninato-κ:κ)(μ-OH)(μ-OH)](OOC-R-COO)·HO (R: ethylene-, acetylene-, naphthalene-, or biphenyl-group) in which the rigid copper-adeninato entities and the organic dicarboxylate anions are held together not by covalent interactions but by a robust and flexible network of synergic hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interactions based on well-known supramolecular synthons (SMOFs). All compounds are isoreticular, highly insoluble, and water-stable and show a porous crystalline structure with a topology containing a two-dimensional (2D) network of channels, whose dimensions and degree of porosity of the supramolecular network are tailored by the length of the dicarboxylate anion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInorg Chem
October 2023
A family of unprecedented supramolecularly assembled porous metal-organic compounds (SMOFs), based on [CuM(μ-adeninato)(μ-OH)(μ-HO)] cations (M: Cu, Co, Ni, and Zn) and different dicarboxylate anions (fumarate, benzoate, and naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylate), have been employed as precursors of catalysts for the thermocatalytic reduction of CO. The selected metal-organic cation allows us to tune the composition of the SMOFs and, therefore, the features and performance of the final homometallic and bimetallic catalysts. These catalysts were obtained by thermolysis at 600 °C under a N atmosphere and consist of big metal particles (10-20 μm) placed on the surface of the carbonaceous matrix and very tiny metal aggregates (<10 nm) within this carbonaceous matrix.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To quantify the impact of prematurity on chromatic discrimination throughout childhood, from 2 to 15 years of age.
Methods: We recruited two cohorts of children, as part of the TrackAI Project, an international project with seven different study sites: a control group of full-term children with normal visual development and a group of children born prematurely. All children underwent a complete ophthalmological exam and an assessment of colour discrimination along the three colour axes: deutan, protan and trytan using a DIVE device with eye tracking technology.
The present study reports on a 2D lamellar coordination polymer (CP) of {[Zn(µ-pmdc)(HO)]·HO} formula (pmdc = pyrimidine-4,6-dicarboxylate). This CP is synthesized under an appropriate acid-base reaction between the gently mortared reagents in the solid state through a solvent-free procedure that avoids the presence of concomitant byproducts. The X-ray crystal structure reveals the occurrence of Zn entities connected through carboxylate groups of pmdc, which behave as triconnected nodes, giving rise to six-membered ring-based layers that are piled up through hydrogen bonding interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh Alt Med Biol
September 2023
Woolcott, Orison O., Till Seuring, and Oscar A. Castillo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Patients with early-stage ERBB2 (formerly HER2)-positive breast cancer (ERBB2+ BC) who experience a pathologic complete response (pCR) after receiving neoadjuvant therapy have favorable survival outcomes. Predicting the likelihood of pCR may help optimize neoadjuvant therapy.
Objective: To test the ability of the HER2DX assay to predict the likelihood of pCR in patients with early-stage ERBB2+ BC who are receiving deescalated neoadjuvant therapy.