Widespread anthelmintic resistance has complicated the management of parasitic nematodes. Resistance to the benzimidazole (BZ) drug class is nearly ubiquitous in many species and is associated with mutations in beta-tubulin genes. However, mutations in beta-tubulin alone do not fully explain all BZ resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArrhythmias are a hallmark of myocardial infarction (MI) and increase patient mortality. How insult to the cardiac conduction system causes arrhythmias following MI is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate conduction system restoration during neonatal mouse heart regeneration versus pathological remodeling at non-regenerative stages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSudden death after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with electrophysiological heterogeneities and ionic current remodelling. Low ejection fraction (EF) is used in risk stratification, but its mechanistic links with pro-arrhythmic heterogeneities are unknown. We aim to provide mechanistic explanations of clinical phenotypes in acute and chronic MI, from ionic current remodelling to ECG and EF, using human electromechanical modelling and simulation to augment experimental and clinical investigations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarine plastic pollution is an emerging global threat for biodiversity. Plastic ingestion is one of the most typical and studied consequences with petrels being a particularly vulnerable group. We studied the plastic ingestion by Cory's shearwater (Calonectris borealis) fledglings in three islands of the Canarian Archipelago (Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiofouling in membrane filtration systems poses significant operational challenges, leading to decreased permeate flux. The aim of this work was to study the anti-biofilm properties of new nanofiltration membranes produced via layer-by-layer, LBL, assembly by coating a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) support with a polyethylenimine (PEI) and poly(acrylic acid)/graphene oxide (PAA-GO) mixture. The membranes were characterized according to contact angle, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy and their Z-potential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell fate decisions are regulated by intricate signaling networks, with Extracellular signal-Regulated Kinase (ERK) being a central regulator. However, ERK is rarely the only signaling pathway involved, creating a need to study multiple signaling pathways simultaneously at the single-cell level. Many existing fluorescent biosensors for ERK and other pathways have significant spectral overlap, limiting their ability to be multiplexed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the deadliest arrhythmia, often caused by myocardial ischaemia. VF patients require urgent intervention planned quickly and non-invasively. However, the accuracy with which electrocardiographic (ECG) markers reflect the underlying arrhythmic substrate is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a growing demand for sustainable and safe materials in developing technological systems and devices, including those that enhance Raman scattering. Organic (bio) materials based on simple peptides are one class of such materials. This study investigates self-assembled semiconducting peptides as metal-free substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the winter of 2022-2023, hundreds of the Atlantic puffins () appeared dead in the coast of the Canary Islands, a rare event considering their cold-living habits, normally occupying the North Atlantic Ocean. In this work, investigation about the parasites present in the Atlantic puffins found in the biggest islands of the Archipelago was carried out from a population portion. Necropsies of 39 birds were made and, during the examination of the urinary tracts, helminths were found.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This report compares device use in a cohort of Spanish-English bilingual and English monolingual children who are deaf and hard of hearing, including children fitted with traditional hearing aids, cochlear implants (CIs), and/or bone-conduction hearing devices.
Method: Participants were 84 Spanish-English bilingual children and 85 English monolingual children from clinical sites across the United States. The data represent a subset obtained in a larger clinical trial.
Cardiac digital twins are computational tools capturing key functional and anatomical characteristics of patient hearts for investigating disease phenotypes and predicting responses to therapy. When paired with large-scale computational resources and large clinical datasets, digital twin technology can enable virtual clinical trials on virtual cohorts to fast-track therapy development. Here, we present an open-source automated pipeline for personalising ventricular electrophysiological function based on routinely acquired magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacterial infections are a leading cause of mortality worldwide, underscoring the urgent need for effective detection methods. This study introduces a novel approach that combines surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with an electro-optic technique for bacterial detection. The method utilizes a metal-semiconductor substrate that, when activated by an external electric field, significantly amplifies the SERS signal intensity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Multiple dimensions of language dominance, such as language proficiency and demand for language use, can be reflected in bilinguals' speech-in-speech recognition scores. This paper explores the feasibility of using a novel measure to estimate language dominance for bilinguals: relative speech-in-speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) or the within-person difference in SRTs between their two languages.
Method: Participants were 25 Spanish/English bilingual adults ( = 30 years).
The hypothalamus senses the appetite-regulating hormones and also coordinates the metabolic function in alignment with the circadian rhythm. This alignment is essential to maintain the physiological conditions that prevent clinically important comorbidities, such as obesity or type-2 diabetes. However, a complete model of the hypothalamus that relates food intake with circadian rhythms and appetite hormones has not yet been developed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVirtual evaluation of medical therapy through human-based modelling and simulation can accelerate and augment clinical investigations. Treatment of the most common cardiac arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AF), requires novel approaches. This study prospectively evaluates and mechanistically explains three novel pharmacological therapies for AF through in silico trials, including single and combined SK and KP channel block.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: High-grade gliomas (HGG) represent the most aggressive primary brain tumors in adults, characterized by high recurrence rates due to incomplete resection. This review explores the effectiveness of emerging intraoperative therapies that may extend survival by targeting residual tumor cells. The main research question addressed is: What recent intraoperative techniques show promise for complementing surgical resection in HGG treatment?
Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted, examining recent studies on intraoperative therapeutic modalities that support surgical resection of HGG.
Polarizable force fields crucially enhance the modeling of macromolecules in polar media. Here, we present new parameters to model six common monosaccharides with the polarizable AMOEBA force field. These parameters yield a thinner, but denser, hydration layer than that previously reported.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA healthy heart shows intrinsic electrical heterogeneities that play a significant role in cardiac activation and repolarization. However, cardiac diseases may perturb the baseline electrical properties of the healthy cardiac tissue, leading to increased arrhythmic risk and compromised cardiac functions. Moreover, biological variability among patients produces a wide range of clinical symptoms, which complicates the treatment and diagnosis of cardiac diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe influence of biomechanics on cell function has become increasingly defined over recent years. Biomechanical changes are known to affect oncogenesis; however, these effects are not yet fully understood. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is the gold standard method for measuring tissue mechanics on the micro- or nano-scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Patients with postural tachycardia syndrome report position-dependent visual symptoms. Despite their impact on daily life, these symptoms have remained largely unexplored in research. The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of visual symptoms in postural tachycardia syndrome and possible underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.
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