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Membranes combined with nanoparticles are an excellent combination capable of successfully removing various contaminants, such as dyes from wastewater while using very little energy and decreasing pollution. The present study reports an efficient approach for Remazol Black 5 (RB5) dye removal using composite graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (g‐C3N4), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. The membranes were prepared using the phase inversion method, with varying quantities of g‐C3N4 nanosheets ranging from 0.1%, 0.2% to 0.3%. The prepared g‐C3N4 nanosheets were characterized by FTIR, SEM analyses, and zeta potential measurements. FTIR and SEM studies, contact angle, water permeability, COD, and dye rejection measurements were used to characterize the g‐C3N4 nanosheets embedded in PSF and PVDF membranes. After the addition of 0.3 wt% g‐C3N4, the water flux of the 0.3 wt% g‐C3N4 embedded PSF membrane was the highest, whereas the water flux of the 0.3 wt% g‐C3N4 embedded PVDF membrane was the lowest. The ultrafiltration (UF) membrane's performance with g‐C3N4 embedded showed an RB5 rejection rate of more than 80% and a COD removal efficiency of more than 45%. The results of the experimental filtration showed that RB5 rejection reached maximum values of 91.3% for 0.1 wt% g‐C3N4/PSF, and 85.6% for 0.3 wt% g‐C3N4/PVDF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Preeclampsia, a high cause of fetomaternal morbidity-mortality, remains a significant burden affecting 8% of all pregnancies. Environmental conditions induce disease development leading to endothelial dysfunction in genetically predisposed women. Our aim is to discuss oxidative stress as a well-established contributing factor to disease progression with being the first study to show new evidence about serum dehydrogenase enzyme levels (isocitrate, malate, glutamate dehydrogenase) with oxidative markers (myeloperoxidase, total antioxidant-oxidant status, oxidative stress index). Material and Methods: Serum parameters were analyzed with photometric method (Abbott ARCHITECT c8000). Results: The enzyme levels and oxidative markers were significantly higher in patients, supporting the redox imbalance in preeclampsia. According to ROC analysis, malate dehydrogenase showed an outstanding diagnostic ability with the highest AUC value of 0.9 and the cut-off value of 51.2 IU/L. Discriminant analysis including malate, isocitrate and glutamate dehydrogenase had predicted preeclampsia with an overall 87.9% accuracy. Conclusions: Considering the above results, we propose that the enzyme levels increase with oxidative stress functioning as antioxidant defense factors. The unique finding of the study is that the serum levels of malate, isocitrate and glutamate dehydrogenase can be used both separately and combined in the early prediction of preeclampsia. As a novel approach, we also offer combining serum isocitrate and glutamate dehydrogenase levels with ALT, AST tests to state liver functions more reliably in patients. Still, larger sample-sized studies investigating enzyme expression levels are required to confirm the recent findings and to reveal underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the demographic and clinical findings of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) patients followed up in our clinic, their responses to treatment, and prognoses and to determine the clinical utility of echocardiography (ECHO) in the diagnosis of ARF. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the data of 160 patients with ARF (6-17, mean 11.7±2.3 years, F/M: 88/72) that was diagnosed according to the Jones criteria and followed up in the pediatric cardiology clinic between January 2010 and January 2017. RESULTS: About 29.4% (n=47) of 104 patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD) had subclinical carditis. It was observed that subclinical carditis was most common in patients with polyarthralgia (52.2%); in contrast, clinical carditis was most commonly observed together with chorea (39%) and polyarthritis (37.1%). It was found that 60% (n=96) of the patients with rheumatic fever were between the ages of 10-13 and 31.3% (n=50) presented arthralgia most frequently in the winter months. The most common concomitant major symptoms were carditis + arthritis (35%) and carditis + chorea (19.4%). In patients with carditis, the most affected valves were mitral (63.8%) and aortic (50.6%) valves, respectively. The prevalence of monoarthritis, polyarthralgia, and subclinical carditis increased in cases diagnosed during and after 2015. The cardiac valve involvement findings of 71 of 104 patients (68.2%) with carditis improved during the approximately 7 years of follow-up. The regression of heart valve symptoms was significantly higher in patients with clinical carditis and those that complied with prophylaxis compared to patients with subclinical carditis and those that did not comply with prophylaxis. CONCLUSION: We conclude that ECHO results should be included in the diagnostic criteria of ARF, and that subclinical carditis is associated with a risk of developing permanent RHD. Secondary prophylaxis non-compliance is significantly associated with recurrent ARF, and early prophylaxis can reduce the prevalence of RHD in adults and potential associated complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron deficiency anemia is a prevalent type of anemia globally, caused mainly by the deficiency of iron, which is an essential component of various metabolic pathways. In this study, we aimed to investigate the changes in metabolite profiles resulting from alterations in these interconnected pathways. We selected 48 patients with IDA and 48 healthy participants based on diagnostic criteria for iron deficiency. NMR spectroscopy was utilized for metabolite profiling. Chenomx, MetaboAnalyst, and R were employed for data analysis. NMR analysis identified and quantified 119 metabolites. Significant metabolites between the two groups were determined using fold change (FC) analysis and t-test results. The FC values of the metabolite group ranked the following compounds in descending order: Acetoin, 2-Hydroxy-3-methylvalerate, Homogentisate, 3-Methylxanthine, Desaminotyrosine, Succinate, Methylguanidine, Guanidinosuccinate, 3-Methylglutarate, Ethanol, Carnosine, SN-Glycero-3-phosphocholine, and Homocysteine. The IDA patients had increased levels of Acetoin, 2-Hydroxy-3-methylvalerate, Homogentisate, 3-Methylxanthine, Succinate, Guanidinosuccinate, Ethanol, Carnosine, and SNGlycero- 3-phosphocholine, while decreased levels of Desaminotyrosine, Methylguanidine, and 3-Methylglutarate were observed. Our findings provide valuable insights into the different metabolites and pathways associated with IDA. Further molecular research is needed to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to look into the effect of Gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) concentration (0.5%, 1%, and 2%) on the performance of newly developed Gd2 O3/PSF membranes A common phase inversion method was used to create the membranes. Pure water flux and bovine serum albumin (BSA) permeation tests were used to evaluate membrane performance. FTIR and contact angle measurements were used to characterize the membranes that were manufactured. The greatest percentage of BSA rejection was 53%. In this work, the optimum membrane (2% wt Gd2O3/17% wt PSF) successfully demonstrated 53% rejection with filtrate flux for about 8.7 L/m2.h at a pressure of 10 bar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]