The breath print represents a novel biomarker of malnutrition in pulmonary arterial hypertension: A proof of concept study.

Background: The breath print is a quantitative measurement of molecules in exhaled breath and represents a new frontier for biomarker identification. It is unknown whether this state-of-the-art, noninvasive method can detect malnutrition. We hypothesize that individuals with malnutrition will present with a distinguishable breath print.

Novel methods in pulmonary hypertension phenotyping in the age of precision medicine (2015 Grover Conference series).

Among pulmonary vascular diseases, pulmonary hypertension (PH) is the best studied and has been the focus of our work. The current classification of PH is based on a relatively simple combination of patient characteristics and hemodynamics. This leads to inherent limitations, including the inability to customize treatment and the lack of clarity from a more granular identification based on individual patient phenotypes.

Effect of hydrocarbons on the morphology of synthesized niobium carbide nanoparticles.

Niobium carbide nanoparticles were synthesized by flowing methane, ethylene, or acetylene gas through a plasma generated from an arc discharge between two niobium electrodes. Varying methane, ethylene, and acetylene concentrations were employed in the studies to investigate their effects on niobium carbide nanoparticle morphology. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and selected area diffraction pattern (SADP) were used to investigate the synthesized NbC nanoparticles, whereupon it was found that these nanoparticles adopt cubic morphology with methane gas, a mixture of cubes and cuboctahedron morphology with ethylene gas, and solely a cuboctahedron morphology with acetylene gas.

Effect of carbon concentration on changing the morphology of titanium carbide nanoparticles from cubic to cuboctahedron.

Titanium carbide nanoparticles were synthesized by flowing methane through a plasma generated from an arc discharge between two titanium electrodes. Different methane concentrations were employed in studies made to investigate the effects of carbon concentration on particle morphology. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to investigate the synthesized TiC nanopowders, whereupon it was found that nanocrystalline TiC nanoparticles prefer a cubic morphology at low concentrations of methane and a cuboctahedron morphology at high concentration of methane.