Predicting Inflammatory Arthritis in At-Risk Persons: Development of Scores for Risk Stratification.

Background: Inflammatory arthritis (IA) is an immune-related condition defined by the presence of clinical synovitis. Its most common form is rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To develop scores for predicting IA in at-risk persons using multidimensional biomarkers.

Longitudinal molecular trajectories of diffuse glioma in adults.

The evolutionary processes that drive universal therapeutic resistance in adult patients with diffuse glioma remain unclear. Here we analysed temporally separated DNA-sequencing data and matched clinical annotation from 222 adult patients with glioma. By analysing mutations and copy numbers across the three major subtypes of diffuse glioma, we found that driver genes detected at the initial stage of disease were retained at recurrence, whereas there was little evidence of recurrence-specific gene alterations.

Solvent-free bulk polymerization of lignin-polycaprolactone (PCL) copolymer and its thermoplastic characteristics.

The pristine lignin molecules contain multiple reactive hydroxyl [OH] groups, some of which undergo limited polymerization depending on their configuration (aromatic or aliphatic) or conformation. The key issue in lignin-polymerization is to quantify the number of hydroxyl groups in the pristine molecules for subsequent activation to specific lignin-polymer chain lengths or degree of grafting. In this study, using ε-caprolactone (CL) as a reactive solvent, we successfully polymerized CL on the [OH] sites in the kraft lignin macromonomers (LM, M = 1,520 g mol), which resulted in a thermoplastic lignin-polycaprolactone (PCL) grafted copolymer.

Highly Conductive Paper/Textile Electrodes Using Ligand Exchange Reaction-Induced in Situ Metallic Fusion.

Here, we report that metal nanoparticle (NP)-based paper/textile electrodes with bulk metallic conductivity can be prepared via organic linker-modulated ligand exchange reaction and in situ room-temperature metallic fusion without additional chemical or thermal treatments. For this study, amine-functionalized molecule linkers instead of bulky polymer linkers were layer-by-layer (LbL)-assembled with tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOABr)-stabilized Au NPs to form Au NP multilayered films. By conversion of the amine groups of the organic molecule linkers from -NH to the -NH groups, as well as by a decrease in the size of the organic linkers, the LbL-assembled Au NPs became highly interconnected and fused during LbL deposition, resulting in Au NP multilayers with adjustable conductivity and transport behavior.

Nursing students' learning dynamics with clinical information and communication technology: A constructive grounded theory approach.

Background: The learning of nursing students can be facilitated through direct and/or indirect experiences of using clinical information and communication technology during clinical placements. However, nursing students experience difficulties in using technology for learning. Despite the difficulties, nursing students' learning dynamics with technology in real clinical contexts is poorly understood.

Age of First Arrhythmic Event in Brugada Syndrome: Data From the SABRUS (Survey on Arrhythmic Events in Brugada Syndrome) in 678 Patients.

Background: Data on the age at first arrhythmic event (AE) in Brugada syndrome are from limited patient cohorts. The aim of this study is 2-fold: (1) to define the age at first AE in a large cohort of patients with Brugada syndrome, and (2) to assess the influence of the mode of AE documentation, sex, and ethnicity on the age at first AE.

Methods And Results: A survey of 23 centers from 10 Western and 4 Asian countries gathered data from 678 patients with Brugada syndrome (91.

Fully integrated high-speed intravascular optical coherence tomography/near-infrared fluorescence structural/molecular imaging in vivo using a clinically available near-infrared fluorescence-emitting indocyanine green to detect inflamed lipid-rich atheromata in coronary-sized vessels.

Background: Lipid-rich inflamed coronary plaques are prone to rupture. The purpose of this study was to assess lipid-rich inflamed plaques in vivo using fully integrated high-speed optical coherence tomography (OCT)/near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) molecular imaging with a Food and Drug Administration-approved indocyanine green (ICG).

Methods And Results: An integrated high-speed intravascular OCT/NIRF imaging catheter and a dual-modal OCT/NIRF system were constructed based on a clinical OCT platform.

Search for heavy neutrinos and W(R) bosons with right-handed couplings in a left-right symmetric model in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7 TeV.

Results are presented from a search for heavy, right-handed muon neutrinos, N(μ), and right-handed W(R) bosons, which arise in the left-right symmetric extensions of the standard model. The analysis is based on a 5.0  fb(-1) sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, collected by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

Tumor targeting chitosan nanoparticles for dual-modality optical/MR cancer imaging.

We report tumor targeting nanoparticles for optical/MR dual imaging based on self-assembled glycol chitosan to be a potential multimodal imaging probe. To develop an optical/MR dual imaging probe, biocompatible and water-soluble glycol chitosan (M(w) = 50 kDa) were chemically modified with 5beta-cholanic acid (CA), resulting in amphiphilic glycol chitosan-5beta-cholanic acid conjugates (GC-CA). For optical imaging near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) dye, Cy5.

Antitumor efficacy of cisplatin-loaded glycol chitosan nanoparticles in tumor-bearing mice.

To make a tumor targeting nano-sized drug delivery system, biocompatible and biodegradable glycol chitosan (M(w)=250 kDa) was modified with hydrophobic cholanic acid. The resulting hydrophobically modified glycol chitosans (HGCs) that formed nano-sized self-aggregates in an aqueous medium were investigated as an anticancer drug carrier in cancer treatment. Insoluble anticancer drug, cisplatin (CDDP), was easily encapsulated into the hydrophobic cores of HGC nanoparticles by a dialysis method, wherein the drug loading efficiency was about 80%.

The high throughput screening of neuropeptide FF2 receptor ligands from Korean herbal plant extracts.

We have screened 356 libraries of Korean herbal plant extracts to find potential anti-obesity drugs. We employed the recently developed fluorescence polarization high throughput screening (FP HTS) assays of human neuropeptide FF (NPFF) receptors in 384-well microtiter plates. The primary hits were cherry-picked from the libraries and further analyzed by secondary displacement curve assays, in vitro GTPgammaS binding assays and cell-based CRE luciferase reporter assays.