Porous nanomaterials find wide-ranging applications in modern medicine, optoelectronics, and catalysis, playing a key role in today's effort to build an electrified, sustainable future. Accurate in situ quantification of their structural and surface properties is required to model their performance and improve their design. In this article, we demonstrate how to assess the porosity, surface area and utilization of a model nanoporous soft-landed copper oxide catalyst layer/carbon interface, which is otherwise difficult to resolve using physisorption or capacitance-based methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with persistent or recurrent cervical cancer, following primary treatment with concurrent chemoradiation, represent a subgroup eligible for pelvic exenteration. In light of the substantial morbidity associated with open pelvic exenterations, minimally invasive surgical techniques have been introduced. This systematic review aims to analyze and discuss the current literature on robotic-assisted pelvic exenterations in cervical cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolybdenum ditelluride (MoTe) nanosheets have displayed intriguing physicochemical properties and opto-electric characteristics as a result of their tunable and small band gap ( ∼ 1 eV), facilitating concurrent electron and hole transport. Despite the numerous efforts devoted to the development of p-type MoTe field-effect transistors (FETs), the presence of tellurium (Te) point vacancies has caused serious reliability issues. Here, we overcome this major limitation by treating the MoTe surface with thiolated molecules to heal Te vacancies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interactions between gold nanoparticles, their surface ligands and the solvent critically influence the properties of these nanoparticles. Although spectroscopic and scattering techniques have been used to investigate their ensemble structure, a comprehensive understanding of these processes at the nanoscale remains challenging. Electron microscopy makes it possible to characterize the local structure and composition but is limited by insufficient contrast, electron beam sensitivity and the requirement for ultrahigh-vacuum conditions, which prevent the investigation of dynamic aspects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelanoma patients failing all approved treatment options have a poor prognosis. The antimelanoma activity of regorafenib (REGO), a multitargeted kinase inhibitor, has not been investigated in this patient population. The objective response rate and safety of REGO treatment in advanced melanoma patients was investigated retrospectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeriatr Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil
March 2024
Among older adults with disabilities, maintaining active aging can often be compromised. However, the literature highlights a positive link between mental health and autonomy on one hand, and self-determined motivation on the other. Therefore, self-determined motivation may be improved by promoting mental health and, in the end, older adults autonomy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobally, food production for an ever-growing population is a well-known threat to the environment due to losses of excess reactive nitrogen (N) from agriculture. Since the 1980s, many countries of the Global North, such as Denmark, have successfully combatted N pollution in the aquatic environment by regulation and introduction of national agricultural one-size-fits-all mitigation measures. Despite this success, further reduction of the N load is required to meet the EU water directives demands, and implementation of additional targeted N regulation of agriculture has scientifically and politically been found to be a way forward.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe dehydrogenation of long-chain alkanes to olefins and alkylaromatics is a challenging endothermic reaction, typically requiring harsh conditions which can lead to low selectivity and coking. More favorable thermodynamics can be achieved by using a hydrogen acceptor, such as ethylene. In this work, the potential of heterogeneous platinum catalysts for the transfer dehydrogenation of long-chain alkanes is investigated, using ethylene as a convenient hydrogen acceptor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClinical reasoning is a key attribute of nursing and midwifery professionals. As a part of the Erasmus plus project, we designed a study with the aim of exploring the understanding of clinical reasoning as a concept, experiences of teaching clinical reasoning and practices related to using clinical reasoning in nursing and midwifery. A qualitative study was carried out using the World Café method, involving 44 participants from five European countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeiomyosarcomas of the uterine cervix are rare, mostly occurring in perimenopausal women. Diagnosis is based on pathology and immunohistochemistry. Surgery with a total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy remains the standard.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCryogenic electron microscopy can provide high-resolution reconstructions of macromolecules embedded in a thin layer of ice from which atomic models can be built . However, the interaction between the ionizing electron beam and the sample results in beam-induced motion and image distortion, which limit the attainable resolutions. Sample charging is one contributing factor of beam-induced motions and image distortions, which is normally alleviated by including part of the supporting conducting film within the beam-exposed region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe catalytic performance of heterogeneous catalysts can be tuned by modulation of the size and structure of supported transition metals, which are typically regarded as the active sites. In single-atom metal catalysts, the support itself can strongly affect the catalytic properties. Here, we demonstrate that the size of cerium dioxide (CeO) support governs the reactivity of atomically dispersed palladium (Pd) in carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Primary vaginal melanoma is extremely rare, has a poor prognosis, and occurs mostly in elderly women. The diagnosis is based on histology and immunohistochemistry of a biopsy. Given the rarity of vaginal melanoma, no standardized treatment guidelines are established; however, surgery is the primary treatment modality in the absence of metastatic disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol
January 2023
Objective: During the last decade several case series have been published on robotic surgery in early and advanced stage ovarian cancer. Although most studies lack a significant oncological follow-up, more importantly criteria for patient selection for both robotic surgical staging (R-SS) and robotic interval debulking surgery (R-IDS) are not well defined. The objective of this study was to assess the surgical and oncological outcomes, using well-defined selection criteria, between robotic and open surgery in early and advanced stage ovarian cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has received tremendous attention as a potential neuromodulator of cognitive and affective functions, which likely exerts its effects via activation of the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system. Reliable effects of taVNS on markers of LC-NA system activity, however, have not been demonstrated yet.
Methods: The aim of the present study was to overcome previous limitations by pooling raw data from a large sample of ten taVNS studies (371 healthy participants) that collected salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) as a potential marker of central NA release.
Background: Teacher social support (TSS) has been identified as one of the most important factors of success and well-being for students. Yet, there is a gap in the literature regarding the impact of students' socioeconomic status (SES) on their perceptions of TSS, and whether SES may impact the strength of the relationship between teacher social support and students' sense of belonging to school (SBS).
Aims: In this preregistered study, we aimed at filling this gap by testing the moderating role of SES on the TSS-SBS link, along with the direct associations between these variables.
Anxiety Stress Coping
July 2023
Background And Objectives: The aim was to examine the role of attentional control as a psychological factor involved in socioeconomic status-related mental health differences, and specifically in social anxiety. Based on the literature on socioeconomic status differences in cognitive abilities and attentional control theory, we hypothesized that attentional control would account for the relation between socioeconomic status and social anxiety. We tested this hypothesis in an integrative model also including trait anxiety and subjective socioeconomic status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Discrepancies exist among international guidelines on the surgical staging of para-aortic lymph nodes in locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC), varying from considering a para-aortic lymph node dissection, at least up to the inferior mesenteric artery, to a complete para-aortic lymph node dissection. In this study, we aim to assess the reproducibility of our recently reported robotic technique using indocyanine green for identifying besides primary pelvic sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), secondary para-aortic SLNs in a first case-cohort of cervical cancer patients.
Methods: A retrospective case series of LACC patients with/without suspicious pelvic lymph nodes (LNs) on imaging (including two patients with an additional suspicious para-aortic LN) is reported.
Plasmonic catalysis in the colloidal phase requires robust surface ligands that prevent particles from aggregation in adverse chemical environments and allow carrier flow from reagents to nanoparticles. This work describes the use of a water-soluble conjugated polymer comprising a thiophene moiety as a surface ligand for gold nanoparticles to create a hybrid system that, under the action of visible light, drives the conversion of the biorelevant NAD to its highly energetic reduced form NADH. A combination of advanced microscopy techniques and numerical simulations revealed that the robust metal-polymer heterojunction, rich in sulfonate functional groups, directs the interaction of electron-donor molecules with the plasmonic photocatalyst.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study sought to investigate whether slow deep breathing (SDB) facilitates reversal learning. We also explored whether SDB modulates the renewal effect. After learning a series of cue-outcome associations (early acquisition phase) in a predictive learning task, 37 participants paced their breathing according to a normal (NPB group; 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Because elderly patients with ovarian cancer are underrepresented in randomized studies, this study aimed to expand our knowledge on the safety and effectiveness of frontline treatment with bevacizumab in combination with standard carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy in patients aged 70 years and older with a diagnosis of Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IV ovarian cancer in routine clinical practice in Belgium.
Methods: Patients aged 70 years and older with FIGO stage IV ovarian cancer were included in a multicenter, non-interventional prospective studyto evaluate the safety and effectiveness of treatment with bevacizumab in combination with frontline carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy. Comprehensive geriatric assessments were performed at baseline and during treatment.