The molecular mechanisms linking obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) to obesity and the development of metabolic diseases are still poorly understood. The role of hypoxia (a characteristic feature of OSA) in excessive fat accumulation has been proposed. The present study investigated the possible effects of hypoxia (4% oxygen) on de novo lipogenesis by tracking the major carbon sources in differentiating 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a lethal muscle disease caused by the absence of the protein dystrophin. Dystrophin is hypothesized to work as a molecular shock absorber that limits myofiber membrane damage when undergoing reversible unfolding upon muscle stretching and contraction. Utrophin is a dystrophin homologue that is under investigation as a protein replacement therapy for DMD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The Covid-19 pandemic affected food systems in many countries and emphasized a lot of already existing social, economic and environmental agri-food problems. Alternative food networks (AFNs), praised for their ability to improve the food systems, were under stress, however, at the same time, the changed conditions may have opened new possibilities. In this paper we address the importance of AFNs during the pandemic and investigate how households have changed their participation in AFNs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenetic variations in urate transporters play a significant role in determining human urate levels and have been implicated in developing hyperuricemia or gout. Polymorphism in the key urate transporters, such as ABCG2, URAT1, or GLUT9 was well-documented in the literature. Therefore in this study, our objective was to determine the frequency and effect of rare nonsynonymous allelic variants of , , and on urate transport.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new dark sector antibaryon, denoted ψ_{D}, could be produced in decays of B mesons. This Letter presents a search for B^{+}→ψ_{D}+p (and the charge conjugate) decays in e^{+}e^{-} annihilations at 10.58 GeV, using data collected in the BABAR experiment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe LUX-ZEPLIN experiment is a dark matter detector centered on a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. This Letter reports results from LUX-ZEPLIN's first search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with an exposure of 60 live days using a fiducial mass of 5.5 t.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) is a well-established analytical technique that enables monitoring of protein dynamics and interactions by probing the isotope exchange of backbone amides. It has virtually no limitations in terms of protein size, flexibility, or reaction conditions and can thus be performed in solution at different pH values and temperatures under controlled redox conditions. Thanks to its coupling with mass spectrometry (MS), it is also straightforward to perform and has relatively high throughput, making it an excellent complement to the high-resolution methods of structural biology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nonradioactive method, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in the presence of Phos-tag (Phos-tag electrophoresis), is used to evaluate a kinase autophosphorylation and/or phosphotransfer reaction from a kinase/ATP to its protein substrate. This method outperforms radioisotope methods using [P]ATP for detecting trace amounts of phosphorylated protein in fresh protein preparations. Phos-tag electrophoresis has been used to perform detailed analyses of the kinase activity of a heme-based oxygen sensor-specifically, a globin-coupled histidine kinase from the soil bacterium Anaeromyxobacter sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The umbilicus is often not a midline structure. Centralization of the umbilicus during an abdominoplasty is routinely performed at the level of the skin; however, this is associated with a high rate of postoperative reversion. The authors propose using an eccentric fascial plication centered on the true midline to maintain postoperative centralization of the umbilicus in addition to correction at the skin level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuchenne muscular dystrophy is a lethal muscle wasting disease caused by the absence of the protein dystrophin. Utrophin is a dystrophin homologue currently under investigation as a protein replacement therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Dystrophin is hypothesized to function as a molecular shock absorber that mechanically stabilizes the sarcolemma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeme is a vital cofactor of proteins with roles in oxygen transport (e.g. hemoglobin), storage (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sternoclavicular joint infections (SCJI) are increasing with the opioid crisis and increased intravenous drug abuse (IVDA). Proximal clavicle resection with subsequent pectoralis muscle transposition is part of the treatment of such infections, but the long-term effects on shoulder function are not clear.
Methods: This report presents a consecutive series of 15 cases of SCJI treated with proximal clavicle resection and pectoralis muscle flap coverage.
Understanding the structure and behavior of intermediates in chemical reactions is the key to developing greater control over the reaction outcome. This principle is particularly important in the synthesis of metal nanocrystals (NCs), where the reduction, nucleation, and growth of the reaction intermediates will determine the final size and shape of the product. The shape of metal NCs plays a major role in determining their catalytic, photochemical, and electronic properties and, thus, the potential applications of the material.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiquid metals (LMs) have been used in electrochemistry since the 19th century, but it is only recently that they have emerged as electrocatalysts with unique properties, such as inherent resistance to coke poisoning, which derives from the dynamic nature of their surface. The use of LM nanoparticles (NPs) as electrocatalysts is highly desirable to enhance any surface-related phenomena. However, LM NPs are expected to rapidly coalesce, similarly to liquid drops, which makes their implementation in electrocatalysis hard to envision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAxionlike particles (ALPs) are predicted in many extensions of the standard model, and their masses can naturally be well below the electroweak scale. In the presence of couplings to electroweak bosons, these particles could be emitted in flavor-changing B meson decays. We report herein a search for an ALP, a, in the reaction B^{±}→K^{±}a, a→γγ using data collected by the BABAR experiment at SLAC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe OAT1 () and OAT3 () urate transporters are located on the basolateral membrane of the proximal renal tubules, where they ensure the uptake of uric acid from the urine back into the body. In a cohort of 150 Czech patients with primary hyperuricemia and gout, we examined the coding regions of both genes using PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing. Variants p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on the first search for electron-muon lepton flavor violation (LFV) in the decay of a b quark and b antiquark bound state. We look for the LFV decay ϒ(3S)→e^{±}μ^{∓} in a sample of 118 million ϒ(3S) mesons from 27 fb^{-1} of data collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II e^{+}e^{-} collider operating with a 10.36 GeV center-of-mass energy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCollider searches for dark sectors, new particles interacting only feebly with ordinary matter, have largely focused on identifying signatures of new mediators, leaving much of dark sector structures unexplored. In particular, the existence of dark matter bound states (darkonia) remains to be investigated. This possibility could arise in a simple model in which a dark photon (A^{'}) is light enough to generate an attractive force between dark fermions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBromination of high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) nanodiamond (ND) surfaces has not been explored and can open new avenues for increased chemical reactivity and diamond lattice covalent bond formation. The large bond dissociation energy of the diamond lattice-oxygen bond is a challenge that prevents new bonds from forming, and most researchers simply use oxygen-terminated NDs (alcohols and acids) as reactive species. In this work, we transformed a tertiary-alcohol-rich ND surface to an amine surface with ∼50% surface coverage and was limited by the initial rate of bromination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the catalyst compositional and structural features that control selectivity is of uttermost importance to target desired products in chemical reactions. In this joint experimental-computational work, we leverage tailored Cu/ZnO precatalysts as a material platform to identify the intrinsic features of methane-producing and ethanol-producing CuZn catalysts in the electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR). Specifically, we find that Cu@ZnO nanocrystals, where a central Cu domain is decorated with ZnO domains, and ZnO@Cu nanocrystals, where a central ZnO domain is decorated with Cu domains, evolve into Cu@CuZn core@shell catalysts that are selective for methane (∼52%) and ethanol (∼39%), respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAquatic sediments are predicted to be an important sink for released silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Knowing the long-term effects of AgNPs on benthic deposit-feeders is therefore an important step towards assessing their potential environmental risks. The aim of this study was to examine the effects on survival, growth and reproduction of the deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella teleta exposed for ten weeks to sediment-associated un-coated AgNPs or silver nitrate (AgNO).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The threat of serious radiation exposures to members of the public from radiological incidents and nuclear events has led to intensive study of a number of emergency dosimetry techniques for purposes of triage. As such, a national laboratory of retrospective dosimetry was established in our institute. The purpose of this work is to provide a summary of the well-established and already implemented retrospective physical dosimetry techniques based on thermoluminescence (TL), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and neutron activation including their specifics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCombining domains of different chemical nature within the same hybrid material through the formation of heterojunctions provides the opportunity to exploit the properties of each individual component within the same nano-object; furthermore, new synergistic properties will often arise as a result of unique interface interactions. However, synthetic strategies enabling precise control over the final architecture of multicomponent objects still remain scarce for certain classes of materials. Herein, we report on the formation of Cu/MO (M = Ce, Zn and Zr) hybrid nanocrystals with a tunable number of interfaces between the two domains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHost-associated microbes contribute to host fitness, but it is unclear whether these contributions are from rare keystone taxa, numerically abundant taxa, or interactions among community members. Experimental perturbation of the microbiota can highlight functionally important taxa; however, this approach is primarily applied in systems with complex communities where the perturbation affects hundreds of taxa, making it difficult to pinpoint contributions of key community members. Here, we use the ecological model organism to examine the importance of rare and abundant taxa by perturbing its relatively simple microbiota with targeted antibiotics.
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