The development of point-of-care wearable devices capable of measuring insulin concentration has the potential to significantly improve diabetes management and life quality of diabetic patients. However, the lack of a suitable point-of-care device for personal use makes regular insulin level measurements challenging, in stark contrast to glucose monitoring. Herein, we report an electrochemical transdermal biosensor that utilizes a high-density polymeric microneedle array (MNA) to detect insulin in interstitial fluid (ISF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The prediction of affective experiences, also known as affective forecasting, is an integral component of individuals' decision-making processes. Yet, research consistently demonstrates that affective forecasts (AF) and recollections (AR) are generally inaccurate. Recent research has demonstrated distinct patterns of AF/R bias related to psychopathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe impact of different industrial practices at lamb export abattoirs in Ireland on the microbial and quality attributes of fresh vacuum-packed (VP) lamb leg joints, including Clean Livestock Policy (CLP), fleece clipping, carcass chilling times and vacuum pack storage, at typical chill and retail display temperatures was investigated. Five separate slaughter batches of lamb (ranging in size from 38 to 60 lambs) were followed at two lamb export plants over a two-year period, accounting for seasonal variation. In general, fleece clipping resulted in significantly lower microbial contamination on the fleece than the use of CLP alone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
April 2022
Porous silicon (pSi) is an established porous material that offers ample opportunities for biosensor design thanks to its tunable structure, versatile surface chemistry, and large surface area. Nonetheless, its potential for electrochemical sensing is relatively unexplored. This study investigates layered carbon-stabilized pSi nanostructures with site-specific functionalities as an electrochemical biosensor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of zirconium in chemical industries generates a potential risk of Zr contamination in the environment, with particular concern for the decommissioning of uranium-graphite reactors. Among the natural adsorbents employed for the treatment of nuclear waste, clay minerals showed a very high affinity adsorption for radionuclides, but the influence of the chemical composition, pressure, temperature and time reaction have not yet been analysed on deep. Thus, the objective of this research is to explore several experimental conditions for an actual prediction of the behaviour of zirconium immobilization by clay minerals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2022
Wearable technologies have great potential in health monitoring and disease diagnostics. As a consequence, interest in the study of wearable sensors has dramatically increased over recent years. Successful translation of this technology from research prototypes to commercial products requires addressing some of the major challenges faced by wearable sensors such as loss of, and damage in, the biological recognition layer of the skin-interfaced sensors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Epidemiol
February 2022
Objective: Minimal clinically important improvements (MCII) are known to vary with the baseline level in the sample. We examined if MCIIs are also larger in samples with higher responsiveness.
Study Design And Setting: In a prospective longitudinal study of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis, we assessed arthritis activity before and after new treatments.
Prog Nucl Magn Reson Spectrosc
September 2021
Swelling layered clay minerals form an important sub-group of the phyllosilicate family. They are characterized by their ability to expand or contract in the presence or absence of water. This property makes them useful for a variety of applications, ranging from environmental technologies to heterogeneous catalysis, and including pharmaceutical and industrial applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrochemical devices for transdermal monitoring of key biomarkers are the potential next frontier of wearable technologies for point-of-care disease diagnosis, including Cancer in which Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide with estimated 10 million deaths in 2018 according to the World Health Organization and breast cancer is one of the five most common causes of cancer death with over two million cases recorded in 2018. Early diagnosis and prognosis based on monitoring of breast cancer biomarkers is of high importance. In this work, high-density gold coated silicon microneedle arrays (Au-Si-MNA) were simultaneously used as biomarker extraction platform and electrochemical transducer, enabling the selective immunocapture of epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ErbB2), a key breast cancer biomarker, and its subsequent quantification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividuals with obesity have a heightened risk of developing serious comorbidities, and pharmacological treatments for people with obesity are limited. This phase 2 study assessed the safety and efficacy of JNJ-64565111, a dual agonist of glucagon-like peptide-1 and glucagon receptors, in individuals with class II/III obesity without type 2 diabetes. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and open-label active-controlled, parallel-group, multicentre study, participants aged 18 to 70 years with a body mass index of 35 to 50 kg/m and stable weight were randomly assigned in a 1:1:2:2:2 ratio to blinded treatment with placebo; JNJ-64565111 (5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWeight loss has been shown to improve metabolic parameters and cardiovascular risk in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This phase 2 study evaluated the safety and efficacy of JNJ-64565111, a dual agonist of GLP-1 and glucagon receptors, in individuals with T2DM and class II/III obesity. In this randomized, double-blind study, participants with T2DM (HbA1c 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZr(IV) together with U(IV) are the major components of high-level radionuclide waste (HLRW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants. Thus, their retention in the waste disposal is of great importance for the environmental risk control. Here, the influence of clay minerals on the retention of Zr(IV), as component of the nuclear waste and as chemical analogues of U(IV), has been evaluated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study compared initiation of insulin and other antihyperglycaemic agents (AHAs) with canagliflozin versus placebo for participants with type 2 diabetes and a history/high risk of cardiovascular disease in the CANagliflozin cardioVascular Assessment Study (CANVAS) Program. After 1 year, fewer participants treated with canagliflozin versus placebo initiated any AHA (7% vs. 16%), insulin (3% vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Colloid Interface Sci
September 2020
Nanotechnology's rapid development of nanostructured materials with disruptive material properties has inspired research for their use as electrocatalysts to potentially substitute enzymes. Herein, a novel electrocatalytic nanomaterial was constructed by growing gold nanograss (AuNG) on 2D nanoassemblies of gold nanocubes (AuNC). The resulting structure (NG@NC) was used for the detection of HOvia its electrochemical reduction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Colloid Interface Sci
March 2020
Surface modification of natural clay minerals with reagents containing metal chelating groups has great environmental value. The functionalization by adsorption or grafting guarantees a durable immobilization of the reactive organic groups, preventing their leaching when they are used in liquid media. The aim of this research was the designed mercapto functionalization of swelling brittle micas, Na-Mn, thorough both chemical and physical mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBionanocomposites based on layered inorganic components, as clays, and polymers of biological origin, as chitosan, have a major impact in medical and environmental fields, being economical and environmentally friendly materials. Na-Mn micas (n = 2 and 4) with controlled surface charge, high cation exchange capacity and swelling behaviour, are attractive inorganic composite components that exhibit improved adsorption properties compared to other inorganic solids which makes them potentially useful for bionanocomposites. The goal of this research was to explore the potential use of those synthetic brittle micas to form eco-friendly bionanocomposites with chitosan biopolymer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report the first method to introduce differential functionalities in the interior pore walls and exterior surface of highly stable thermally hydrocarbonised porous silicon (THCpSi) films. The approach exploits the hydrophobicity of the hydrosilylated THCpSi to, first, selectively functionalise the external surface, and subsequently derivatise the hydrophobic internal pore walls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatient-centred care is an essential component of high-quality health care, shown to improve clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction, and reduce costs. While there are several authoritative models of obesity pathophysiology and treatment algorithms, a truly patient-centred model is lacking. We describe the development of a patient-centric obesity model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSolid State Nucl Magn Reson
August 2019
Combining O Magic-Angle Spinning (MAS) NMR at natural abundance with DFT calculations is a promising methodology to shed light on the structure and disorder in tetrahedral sheets of designed micas with enhanced properties. Among brittle micas, synthetic mica is an important alternative to natural ones with a swelling sheet-like structure that results in many applications, by exploiting unique characteristics. Lowenstein's rule is one of the main chemical factor that determines the atomic structure of aluminosilicates and furthermore their properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Respiratory tract infections are among the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Acute bronchiolitis (AB) is the leading cause of hospital admission among infants. Clinical scores have proven to be inaccurate in predicting prognosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIsolation of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in deep geological repositories (DGR) through a multibarrier concept is the most accepted approach to ensure long-term safety. Clay minerals are one of the most promising materials to be used as engineered barriers. In particular, high charge micas, as components of the engineered barrier, show superselectivity for some radioactive isotopes and a large adsorption capacity, which is almost twice that of the other low charge aluminosilicates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThermal treatment is a traditional method for food processing, which can kill microorganisms but also lead to physicochemical and sensory quality damage, especially to temperature-sensitive foods. Nowadays consumers' increasing interest in microbial safety products with premium appearance, flavor, great nutritional value and extended shelf-life has promoted the development of emerging non-thermal food processing technologies as alternative or substitution to traditional thermal methods. Fish is an important and world-favored food but has a short shelf-life due to its extremely perishable characteristic, and the microbial spoilage and oxidative process happen rapidly just from the moment of capture, making it dependent heavily on post-harvest preservation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To estimate minimal clinically important improvement (MCII) of RAPID-3 (Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods: RAPID-3 was computed before and after treatment escalation in a prospective study of adults with active RA. Patient judgment of improvement was used as the standard for a receiver-operating characteristic curve, from which MCII was estimated.