Publications by authors named "Ying C Tan"

Minimally invasive abdominal surgery (MAS) can exert a physical cost. Surgical trainees spend years assisting minimally-invasive surgeries, increasing the risk of workplace injury. This prospective questionnaire-based cohort study was conducted amongst general surgery residents in Singapore.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Presently, the rapid depletion of resources and drastic climate change highlight the importance of sustainable development. In this case, nanochitin derived from chitin, the second most abundant renewable polymer in the world, possesses numerous advantages, including toughness, easy processability and biodegradability. Furthermore, it exhibits better dispersibility in various solvents and higher reactivity than chitin owing to its increased surface area to volume ratio.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nanocellulose has been widely used as a reinforcing agent for hydrogel systems, but its functions on thermal responsive hydrogels are rarely investigated. In this study, we extracted cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) from coconut biomass (coir fibers and piths, respectively) and aimed to study their effects on the material properties on a new class of thermogel (poly(PCL/PEG/PPG urethane). The CNFs extracted from fiber (FF) and piths (FP) showed different morphology and fiber lengths.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adipic acid, an industrially-important chemical that can be sustainably derived from biomass and post-consumer nylon, is traditionally overlooked as a linker for MOFs. Herein, we report the first direct one-pot method for synthesising UiO-66 MOFs with an unprecedented 69 mol% adipate content, as well as the feasibility of these materials for MOF defect engineering by rapid and selective adipate thermolysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Electrochemical reduction of CO on copper-based catalysts has become a promising strategy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and gain valuable chemicals and fuels. Unfortunately, however, the generally low product selectivity of the process decreases the industrial competitiveness compared to the established large-scale chemical processes. Here, we present random solid solution CuNi alloy catalysts that, due to their full miscibility, enable a systematic modulation of adsorption energies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Interactions between metal nanoparticles (NPs) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in their composite forms have proven to exhibit beneficial properties, such as enhanced catalytic performance through synergistic effects. Herein, we show that Lewis basic sites can be created within an anionic defective MOF by engineering the electronic state of the pendant carboxylate groups situated at the defect sites. This is achieved from the concerted interactions between the pendant carboxylate groups, embedded Pd NPs and charge-balancing cations (M = Ce, Co, Ni, Cu, Mg, Li, Na or K).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Group A Streptococcus (GAS; ) causes a wide range of infections, including pharyngitis, impetigo, and necrotizing fasciitis, and results in over half a million deaths annually. GAS ScpC (SpyCEP), a 180-kDa surface-exposed, subtilisin-like serine protease, acts as an essential virulence factor that helps evade the innate immune response by cleaving and inactivating C-X-C chemokines. ScpC is thus a key candidate for the development of a vaccine against GAS and other pathogenic streptococcal species.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Hippo tumor suppressor pathway is an important regulator of cell proliferation and apoptosis, and signal transduction occurs through phosphorylation of the effector protein TAZ by the serine/threonine kinase LATS1/2. Here, we report the biophysical and computational studies to characterize the interaction between TAZ and LATS1/2 through WW domain-PPxY motif binding. We show that the TAZ WW domain exhibits a binding preference for the second of the two PPxY motifs of LATS1 in vitro.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death worldwide. In the United Kingdom in 2010, over 80,000 deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease, and one in 10 female deaths were due to coronary heart disease. Acute coronary syndrome, a subset of coronary heart disease, was responsible for 175,000 inpatient admissions in the United Kingdom in 2012.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Central nervous system infection continues to be an important cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Our incomplete knowledge on the pathogenesis of how meningitis-causing pathogens cause CNS infection and emergence of antimicrobial resistance has contributed to the mortality and morbidity. An early empiric antibiotic treatment is critical for the management of patients with bacterial meningitis, but early recognition of bacterial meningitis continues to be a challenge.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF