Myocarditis and Pericarditis are Temporally Associated with BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

The incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis has been documented in adolescents after COVID-19 vaccinations. This study aims to assess the risk of myopericarditis in adolescents following COVID-19 vaccination, using a meta-analysis of the published cases. We performed a comprehensive literature search of the following databases on July 5, 2023: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library.

Two families with spondylo-epi-metaphyseal dysplasia due to compound heterozygocity in the vWFA domain of MATN3.

Heterozygous variants of MATN3 is one of the common causes of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED). Here we report three individuals from two unrelated families who harbor compound heterozygous variants in MATN3 (p.Arg121Trp and p.

Consequences of interplant trait variation for canopy light absorption and photosynthesis.

Plant-to-plant variation (interplant variation) may play an important role in determining individual plant and whole canopy performance, where interplant variation in architecture and photosynthesis traits has direct effects on light absorption and photosynthesis. We aimed to quantify the importance of observed interplant variation on both whole-plant and canopy light absorption and photosynthesis. Plant architecture was measured in two experiments with fruiting tomato crops () grown in glasshouses in the Netherlands, in week 16 (Exp.

Biallelic novel mutations of the COL27A1 gene in a patient with Steel syndrome.

An 11-year-old Korean boy presented with short stature, hip dysplasia, radial head dislocation, carpal coalition, genu valgum, and fixed patellar dislocation and was clinically diagnosed with Steel syndrome. Scrutinizing the trio whole-exome sequencing data revealed novel compound heterozygous mutations of COL27A1 (c.[4229_4233dup]; [3718_5436del], p.

Autosomal dominant brachyolmia: transient metaphyseal striations.

We report transient proximal and distal femoral metaphyseal striations that have not previously been described in autosomal dominant brachyolmia. The pelvis/hip radiograph of a 13-year-old boy demonstrated bilaterally symmetrical proximal femoral metaphyseal vertical striations. Additional vertical striations were also observed at the distal femur and proximal tibia metaphysis.

Novel missense loss-of-function mutations of WNT1 in an autosomal recessive Osteogenesis imperfecta patient.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heritable skeletal disorder characterized by bone fragility and low bone mass. Recently, loss-of-function mutations of WNT1 have been reported to be causative in OI or osteoporosis. We report an OI patient with novel compound heterozygous WNT1 missense mutations, p.

Wiedemann-Steiner Syndrome With 2 Novel KMT2A Mutations.

Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by short stature, hairy elbows, facial dysmorphism, and developmental delay. It can also be accompanied by musculoskeletal anomalies such as muscular hypotonia and small hands and feet. Mutations in the KMT2A gene have only recently been identified as the cause of Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome; therefore, only 16 patients from 15 families have been described, and new phenotypic features continue to be added.

Extending the phenotype of BMPER-related skeletal dysplasias to ischiospinal dysostosis.

Ischiospinal dysostosis (ISD) is a polytopic dysostosis characterized by ischial hypoplasia, multiple segmental anomalies of the cervicothoracic spine, hypoplasia of the lumbrosacral spine and occasionally associated with nephroblastomatosis. ISD is similar to, but milder than the lethal/semilethal condition termed diaphanospondylodysostosis (DSD), which is associated with homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations of bone morphogenetic protein-binding endothelial regulator protein (BMPER) gene. Here we report for the first time biallelic BMPER mutations in two patients with ISD, neither of whom had renal abnormalities.

Developed diplopia and ptosis due to a nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenoma during pregnancy.

Physiologic pituitary enlargement is common during normal pregnancy. However, symptoms such as diplopia, blurred vision and headache resulting from physiologic pituitary enlargement are very rare during pregnancy. A 39-year-old woman complained of sudden diplopia and left eye ptosis at 33th weeks of gestation.

Sequences associated with centromere competency in the human genome.

Centromeres, the sites of spindle attachment during mitosis and meiosis, are located in specific positions in the human genome, normally coincident with diverse subsets of alpha satellite DNA. While there is strong evidence supporting the association of some subfamilies of alpha satellite with centromere function, the basis for establishing whether a given alpha satellite sequence is or is not designated a functional centromere is unknown, and attempts to understand the role of particular sequence features in establishing centromere identity have been limited by the near identity and repetitive nature of satellite sequences. Utilizing a broadly applicable experimental approach to test sequence competency for centromere specification, we have carried out a genomic and epigenetic functional analysis of endogenous human centromere sequences available in the current human genome assembly.

Pyrazole-substituted near-infrared cyanine dyes exhibit pH-dependent fluorescence lifetime properties.

Near-infrared heptamethine cyanine dye is functionalized with pyrazole derivatives at the meso-position to induce pH-dependent photophysical properties. The presence of pyrazole unsubstituted at (1) N-position is essential to induce pH-dependent fluorescence intensity and lifetime changes in these dyes. Replacement of meso-chloro group of cyanine dye IR820 with (1) N-unsubstituted pyrazole resulted in the pH-dependent fluorescence lifetime changes from 0.

Induction of pH sensitivity on the fluorescence lifetime of quantum dots by NIR fluorescent dyes.

Modulation of the fluorescence lifetime (FLT) of CdTeSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) by near-IR (NIR) organic chromophores represents a new strategy for generating reproducible pH-sensing nanomaterials. The hybrid construct transfers the pH sensitivity of photolabile NIR cyanine dyes to highly emissive and long-lifetime pH-insensitive QDs, thereby inducing a reproducible FLT change from 29 ns at pH >7 to 12 ns at pH <5. This approach provides an unparalleled large dynamic FLT range for pH sensing at NIR wavelengths.

Decomposition of MEK and toluene over nanolayered TiO2 photocatalyts prepared from metallic titanium chip.

The Nanolayered TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared by thermal treatment of metallic titanium chips. Photocatalytic activity for methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and toluene was investigated using a closed circulating system. The photocatalysts were characterized by SEM and XRD.

Two-photon optical properties of near-infrared dyes at 1.55 μm excitation.

Two-photon (2P) optical properties of cyanine dyes were evaluated using a 2P fluorescence spectrophotometer with 1.55 μm excitation. We report the 2P characteristics of common NIR polymethine dyes, including their 2P action cross sections and the 2P excited fluorescence lifetime.

Organization and molecular evolution of CENP-A--associated satellite DNA families in a basal primate genome.

Centromeric regions in many complex eukaryotic species contain highly repetitive satellite DNAs. Despite the diversity of centromeric DNA sequences among species, the functional centromeres in all species studied to date are marked by CENP-A, a centromere-specific histone H3 variant. Although it is well established that families of multimeric higher-order alpha satellite are conserved at the centromeres of human and great ape chromosomes and that diverged monomeric alpha satellite is found in old and new world monkey genomes, little is known about the organization, function, and evolution of centromeric sequences in more distant primates, including lemurs.

Relationship between dietary folate intake and plasma monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and interleukin-8 in heart failure patients.

This study aimed to examine the association of dietary vitamin intakes with plasma pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in Korean heart failure patients. Stable outpatients with heart failure were recruited and finally 91 patients were included. Dietary intakes were estimated by a developed semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.

Near-infrared pH-activatable fluorescent probes for imaging primary and metastatic breast tumors.

Highly tumor selective near-infrared (NIR) pH-activatable probe was developed by conjugating pH-sensitive cyanine dye to a cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (cRGD) peptide targeting α(v)β(3) integrin (ABIR), a protein that is highly overexpressed in endothelial cells during tumor angiogenesis. The NIR pH-sensitive dye used to construct the probe exhibits high spectral sensitivity with pH changes. It has negligible fluorescence above pH 6 but becomes highly fluorescent below pH 5, with a pK(a) of 4.

Rational approach to select small peptide molecular probes labeled with fluorescent cyanine dyes for in vivo optical imaging.

We demonstrate that the structure of carbocyanine dyes, which are commonly used to label small peptides for molecular imaging and not the bound peptide, controls the rate of extravasation from blood vessels to tissue. By examining several near-infrared (NIR) carbocyanine fluorophores, we demonstrate a quantitative correlation between the binding of a dye to albumin, a model plasma protein, and the rate of extravasation of the probe into tissue. Binding of the dyes was measured by fluorescence quenching of the tryptophans in albumin and was found to be inversely proportional to the rate of extravasation.

¹H nuclear magnetic resonance based metabolic urinary profiling of patients with ischemic heart failure.

Objectives: We sought to identify metabolic pathways characterizing human heart failure (HF) using ¹NMR based urinary metabolomic analysis in conjunction with multivariate statistics.

Design And Methods: Patients with systolic HF of ischemic origin (n=15) and healthy controls (n=20) participated in this study. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were excluded.

Syntactic and lexical context of pauses and hesitations in the discourse of Alzheimer patients and healthy elderly subjects.

Psycholinguistic studies dealing with Alzheimer's disease (AD) commonly consider verbal aspects of language. In this article, we investigated both verbal and non-verbal aspects of speech production in AD. We used pauses and hesitations as markers of planning difficulties and hypothesized that AD patients show different patterns in the process of discourse production.

Bright fluorescent nanoparticles for developing potential optical imaging contrast agents.

Fluorescent cross-linked nanoparticles with variable fluorophore loading amounts, locations, and particle sizes were synthesized from sequential one-pot functionalization/cross-linking of block copolymer micelles with amine-terminated dye and cross-linker molecules, via reductive amination and amidation. The fluorescence quantum yield and brightness of these nanoparticles were evaluated by steady-state and dynamic fluorescence methods. The results demonstrate that the quantum yield and brightness of the fluorescent nanoparticles correlated directly with the number of dyes/nanoparticle and the nanoparticle size.