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Muscle wasting is a consequence of physiological changes or a pathology characterized by increased catabolic activity that leads to progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. Numerous diseases, including cancer, organ failure, infection, and aging-associated diseases, are associated with muscle wasting. Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by loss of skeletal muscle mass, with or without the loss of fat mass, resulting in functional impairment and reduced quality of life. It is caused by the upregulation of systemic inflammation and catabolic stimuli, leading to inhibition of protein synthesis and enhancement of muscle catabolism. Here, we summarize the complex molecular networks that regulate muscle mass and function. Moreover, we describe complex multi-organ roles in cancer cachexia. Although cachexia is one of the main causes of cancer-related deaths, there are still no approved drugs for cancer cachexia. Thus, we compiled recent ongoing pre-clinical and clinical trials and further discussed potential therapeutic approaches for cancer cachexia.

The emission sources and their health risks of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Siheung, Republic of Korea, were investigated as a middle-sized industrial city. To identify the PM2.5 sources with error estimation, a positive matrix factorization model was conducted using daily mean speciated data from November 16, 2019, to October 2, 2020 (95 samples, 22 chemical species). As a result, 10 sources were identified: secondary nitrate (24.3%), secondary sulfate (18.8%), traffic (18.8%), combustion for heating (12.6%), biomass burning (11.8%), coal combustion (3.6%), heavy oil industry (1.8%), smelting industry (4.0%), sea salts (2.7%), and soil (1.7%). Based on the source apportionment results, health risks by inhalation of PM2.5 were assessed for each source using the concentration of toxic elements portioned. The estimated cumulative carcinogenic health risks from the coal combustion, heavy oil industry, and traffic sources exceeded the benchmark, 1E-06. Similarly, carcinogenic health risks from exposure to As and Cr exceeded 1E-05 and 1E-06, respectively, needing a risk reduction plan. The non-carcinogenic risk was smaller than the hazard index of one, implying low potential for adverse health effects. The probable locations of sources with relatively higher carcinogenic risks were tracked. In this study, health risk assessment was performed on the elements for which mass concentration and toxicity information were available; however, future research needs to reflect the toxicity of organic compounds, elemental carbon, and PM2.5 itself.

Objectives Currently, a prostate biopsy is guided by transrectal ultrasound (US) alone. However, this biopsy cannot be performed in men without an anus. The aim of this study was to show the outcomes of a new transperineal US (TPUS)-guided biopsy technique in patients who underwent Miles’ operation. Methods Between April 2009 and March 2022, TPUS-guided biopsy was consecutively conducted in 9 patients (median, 71 years; range, 61–78 years) with high prostate-specific antigen values (22.60 ng/mL; 6.19–69.7 ng/mL). Their anuses were all removed due to rectal cancer. TPUS-guided biopsy was performed according to information on prostate magnetic resonance imaging. The technical success rate, cancer detection rate, and complication rate were recorded. Tumor sizes were compared between benign and cancer groups using an unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction. Results The new TPUS-guided biopsy was successfully performed in all patients. Cancer was detected in 77.8% (7/9) of the patients. These were all categorized as PI-RADS 5. Among them, the detection rate of significant cancer (Gleason score 7 or higher) was 66.7% (6/9). The median tumor size was 2.4 cm (1.7–3.1 cm). However, two patients were diagnosed with benign tissue with PI-RADS 3 or PI-RADS 4. Their median tumor size was 1.0 cm (0.8–1.2 cm). There was significant difference between the cancer and benign groups (p = 0.037) in terms of tumor size. Neither post-biopsy bleeding nor infections occurred. Conclusions New TPUS-guided biopsy technique may contribute to detecting large PI-RADS 5 prostate cancer in men after Miles’ operation.

Hypertension is the leading cause of death in human being, which shows high prevalence and associated complications that increase the mortality and morbidity. Controlling blood pressure (BP) is very important because it is well known that lowering high BP effectively improves patients’ prognosis. This review aims to provide a focused update of the 2018 Korean Hypertension Society Guidelines for the management of hypertension. The importance of ambulatory BP and home BP monitoring was further emphasized not only for the diagnosis but also for treatment target. By adopting corresponding BPs, the updated guideline recommended out-of-office BP targets for both standard and intensive treatment. Based on the consensus on corresponding BPs and Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) revisit, the updated guidelines recommended target BP in high-risk patients below 130/80 mmHg and it applies to hypertensive patients with three or more additional cardiovascular risk factors, one or more risk factors with diabetes, or hypertensive patients with subclinical organ damages, coronary or vascular diseases, heart failure, chronic kidney disease with proteinuria, and cerebral lacunar infarction. Cerebral infarction and chronic kidney disease are also high-risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, due to lack of evidence, the target BP was generally determined at

To analyze the available data on the anti-anger effects of herbal medicines (HMs) as well as their underlying mechanisms in rat models.From 6 electronic databases [PubMed, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS), and Research Information Sharing Service (RISS)], relevant animal experiments were searched by using "anger," "rats," and "animal" as search keywords. The last search was conducted on November 22, 2019, and all experiments involving rat models of anger and treatment using HMs published until the date of the search were considered.A total of 24 studies with 16 kinds of HMs were included. Most studies have used the "tail irritating method" and "social isolation and resident intruder" method to establish anger models. According to the included studies, the therapeutic mechanisms of HMs for anger regulation and important herbs by their frequency and/or preclinical evidence mainly incladed regulation of hemorheology (Bupleuri Radix, Paeoniae Radix Alba, and Glycyrrhizae Radix), regulation of sex hormones (Bupleuri Radix, Cyperi Rhizoma, and Paeoniae Radix Alba), regulation of neurotransmitters (Cyperi Rhizoma), regulation of anger-related genes (Bupleuri Radix, Glycyrrhizae Radix, and Paeoniae Radix Alba), and other effects. Overall, Liver (Gan) qi-smoothing herbs including Bupleuri Radix and Cyperi Rhizoma were the most frequently used.This review found the frequent methods to establish an anger model, and major mechanisms of anti-anger effects of HMs. Interestingly, some Liver qi-smoothing herbs have been frequently used to investigate the anti-anger effects of HM. These findings provide insight into the role and relevance of HMs in the field of anger management.

This study aimed to compare susceptibility map-weighted imaging (SMwI) using various MRI machines (three vendors) with N-3-fluoropropyl-2-β-carbomethoxy-3-β-(4-iodophe nyl)nortropane (We prospectively recruited 257 subjects, including 157 patients with neurodegenerative parkinsonism, 54 patients with non-neurodegenerative parkinsonism, and 46 healthy subjects from 10 hospitals between November 2019 and October 2020. All participants underwent both SMwI andThe inter-observer agreement was 0.924 and 0.942 per SN and participant, respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity of SMwI was 97.9% and 99.4% per SN and participant, respectively; its specificity was 95.9% and 95.2%, respectively, and its accuracy was 97.1% and 97.7%, respectively. There was no significant difference between the results of SMwI andThis study demonstrated that the high diagnostic performance of SMwI was maintained in a multi-centre setting with various MRI scanners, suggesting the generalisability of SMwI for determining nigrostriatal degeneration in patients with parkinsonism.• Susceptibility map-weighted imaging helps clinicians to predict nigrostriatal degeneration. • The protocol for susceptibility map-weighted imaging can be standardised across MRI vendors. • Susceptibility map-weighted imaging showed diagnostic performance comparable to that of dopamine transporter PET in a multi-centre setting with various MRI scanners.

This study examined the role of the support material on the coupling of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) dehydrogenation and nitrobenzene (NB) hydrogenation over copper-based catalysts. The catalysts, 10Cu/MgO (10CM), 10Cu/Al2O3 (10CA), 10Cu/MgO-Al2O3 (10CMA), and 10Cu/SiO2 (10CS), were prepared using the impregnation method. The coupling reaction results conducted at 250 °C were compared with those of the individual reactions. The individual BDO dehydrogenation to γ-butyrolactone (GBL) conversion (99%) and hydrogenation of NB to aniline (AN) conversion (85 %) were high over 10CS. In contrast, 10CA produced tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a major product from BDO. Interestingly, the coupling process over the 10CM catalyst produced the best performance in converting NB (65%) to AN (99%) and BDO (85%) to GBL (99%). The superior performance of Cu/MgO in coupling process catalyst is mainly due to the high hydrogen adsorption ability compared to the other catalysts under limited hydrogen environments, which helps retain the active hydrogen on the catalyst surface for a longer time. The characterization of the catalysts showed that a high basic nature and the optimal amount of active copper sites (Cu0/Cu1+) are responsible for the best performance of 10CM, followed by 10CS and 10CMA.

Background Little is known about the self-perceived level of disability of stroke survivors in the community. We aimed to characterise Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 1 year after stroke and investigate how sociodemographic and stroke-related factors and medical adherence explain the self-perceived level of disability in a Korean stroke population. Methods This was a multicentre cross-sectional study. A total of 382 ischaemic stroke survivors at 1 year after onset from 11 university hospitals underwent a one-session assessment, including socioeconomic variables, the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), various neurological sequelae, the Morisky, Green and Levin-Medication Adherence Questionnaire (MGL), and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) 36-items. The relationship between disability and different variables was analysed using ordinal logistic regression. Results The prevalence of disability based on global WHODAS 2.0 was 62.6% (mild, 41.6%; moderate, 16.0%; severe, 5.0%). The prevalence of severe disability was higher in participation in society (16.8%) and getting around (11.8%) than in other domains. Low MGL- motivation was the only factor determining a significant association between all six domains of disability after adjustment. Different predictors for specific domains were age, mRS, dysarthria, trouble seeing, cognition problems, and MGL-motivation for understanding and communicating; age, recurrent stroke, mRS, hemiplegia, facial palsy, general weakness, and MGL-motivation for getting around; age, education, mRS, hemiplegia, and MGL-motivation for self-care; education, recurrent stroke, hemiplegia, dysarthria, and MGL-motivation for getting along with people; age, education, income, mRS, hemiplegia, dysarthria, MGL-knowledge, and MGL-motivation for life activities; living without a spouse, mRS, hemiplegia, dysarthria, trouble seeing, cognition problems, general weakness, and MGL-motivation for participation in society. Conclusions Self-perceived disability according to the WHODAS 2.0 at 1 year after stroke was highly prevalent. Each disability domain showed a different prevalence and associated factors. Interventions promoting medical adherence to motivation seemed to help achieve high HRQoL in all domains.

The ATP-binding cassette subfamily 4 (ABCA4), a transporter, is localized within the photoreceptors of the retina, and its genetic variants cause retinal dystrophy. Despite the clinical importance of the ABCA4 transporter, a few studies have investigated the function of each variant. In this study, we functionally characterized ABCA4 variants found in Korean patients with Stargardt disease or variants of the ABCA4 promoter region. We observed that four missense variants—p.Arg290Gln, p.Thr1117Ala, p.Cys1140Trp, and p.Asn1588Tyr—significantly decreased ABCA4 expression on the plasma membrane, which could be due to intracellular degradation. There are four major haplotypes in the ABCA4 proximal promoter. We observed that the H1 haplotype (c.-761C>A) indicated significantly increased luciferase activity compared to that of the wild-type, whereas the H3 haplotype (c.-1086A>C) indicated significantly decreased luciferase activity (P T in the H2 haplotype exhibited significantly increased luciferase activity compared with that of the wild-type. Two transcription factors, GATA-2 and HLF, were found to function as enhancers of ABCA4 transcription. Our findings suggest that ABCA4 variants in patients with Stargardt disease affect ABCA4 expression. Furthermore, common variants of the ABCA4 proximal promoter alter the ABCA4 transcriptional activity, which is regulated by GATA-2 and HLF transcription factors.

To accurately probe the tactile information on soft skin, it is critical for the pressure sensing array to be free of noise and inter-taxel crosstalk, irrespective of the measurement condition. However, on dynamically moving and soft surfaces, which are common conditions for on-skin and robotic applications, obtaining precise measurement without compromising the sensing performance is a significant challenge due to mechanical coupling between the sensors and with the moving surface. In this work, multi-level architectural design of micro-pyramids and trapezoid-shaped mechanical barrier array was implemented to enable accurate spatiotemporal tactile sensing on soft surfaces under dynamic deformations. Trade-off relationship between limit of detection and bending insensitivity was discovered, which was overcome by employing micropores in barrier structures. Finally, in-situ pressure mapping on dynamically moving soft surfaces without signal distortion is demonstrated while human skin and/or soft robots are performing complicated tasks such as reading Braille and handling the artificial organs.

As battery usage increases every year, the number of spent batteries is also increasing, resulting in an important environmental issue. To examine the possibility of using the black mass (BM) obtained from spent batteries as a catalyst material for volatile organic compound (VOC) oxidation, the effect of the pretreating BM on its catalytic activity was investigated. Catalysts were prepared by pretreating the BM in three ways using water and sulfuric acid, and the catalytic performance of each catalyst was compared. The order of activity according to the pretreatment method was water and sulfuric acid hybrid pretreatment (WSBM)>sulfuric acid pretreatment (SBM)>water pretreatment (WBM)>raw (BM). The high adsorption energy site had a great influence on the activity of the catalyst. The number of acid sites and the easily movable lattice oxygen played an important role in the complete oxidation of benzene, toluene and o-xylene. At a gas hourly space velocity of 50,000 h−1, benzene, toluene, and o-xylene were removed completely on the WSBM catalyst at 370 °C, 360 °C, and 350 °C, respectively.

To investigate whether women with a short cervical length (CL), but delivered at term in the first pregnancy might have increased risks of having short cervix and spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) in the subsequent pregnancies.This is a retrospective cohort study including singleton gestations who were delivered between Jan 2011 and Dec 2018, who had had one childbirth experience and who had transvaginal sonographic CL assessment performed at mid-trimester (18 ~ 30 weeks) in both pregnancy. The women were divided into four group according to the history of preterm birth and a short cervix ( 25 mm before 30 weeks of gestation): (1) the Preterm-short cervix group, (2) the Preterm-no shortening group, (3) the Term-short cervix group, and (4) the Term-no shortening group. We compared the risk of having short cervix and sPTB during the second pregnancy of women. Secondary outcomes were threatened preterm labor, need for tocolytics, and cerclage placement.A total of 804 women met our inclusion criteria. The rate of having short cervix ( 25 mm before 28 weeks of gestation) during the second pregnancy in women in the Term-short cervix group (43.2%) was significantly higher than those in women in the Term-no shortening group (6.6%), and in the Preterm-no shortening group (8.8%) (all p 0.001 with Bonferroni correction), but not higher than those in women with the Preterm-short cervix group (30.8%, p 0.05 with Bonferroni correction). When compared with women in the Preterm-no shortening group, women in the Term-short cervix group were also at an increased risk of need for need of tocolytics (60.2% vs. 26.5%) and cerclage placement (15.9% vs. 6.1%, all p 0.001). Women in the Term-short cervix group had an increased risk of sPTB ( 37 weeks) during the second pregnancy, as compared to those in the Term-no shortening group (adjusted odds ratio 5.098, 95% CI 2.107-11.874).Women with a history of short cervix in their first pregnancy, but who delivered at term, were at increased risk of having a short cervix and sPTB in their second pregnancy, as compared to women with a history of term delivery without cervical shortening. Thus, short cervix of the previous pregnancy might be a predictive factors for preterm birth in the subsequent pregnancy.

Follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma (FVPTC) is a problematic entity. FVPTCs are often misdiagnosed by the standard fine needle aspiration (FNA); in addition, FVPTCs represent a mixed group of tumors with two biologically distinct subtypes: The indolent encapsulated FVPTC and the aggressive infiltrative FVPTC. Recent changes in guidelines suggests that FVPTC management may be improved if subtypes can be determined preoperatively. Preoperative assays, FNA, core needle biopsy (CNB), and ultrasonography (US) were compared for their ability to identify and subtype FVPTCs to determine the most appropriate test to manage FVPTCs. The preoperative assays and clinicopathologic variables of 255 resected FVPTCs cases at Samsung Medical Center between 2012 and 2016 were retrospectively evaluated. CNB had the overall best ability to manage FVPTCs with the highest rate of diagnosis indicating surgery, lowest rate of inconclusive results, high sensitivity (88.9%), specificity (87.7%), negative predictive value (97.0%), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR; 56.9), and excellent predictive ability (AUC 0.906) for differentiating FVPTC subtypes. US had a moderate DOR (12.8), good predictive ability (AUC 0.802), high sensitivity (75.0%) and specificity (81.0%). CNB and US both had significantly higher accuracy for discriminating FVPTC subtypes than FNA (AUC 0.908 and 0.877 > 0.671; p

BACKGROUND: We aimed to validate a pilot study of photodiagnosis using near infrared (NIR) transillumination and assess the clinical efficacy of hypericin-mediated photodynamic therapy (HYP-PDT) in a rabbit laryngeal cancer model in order to develop a novel therapeutic modality with complete remission and preservation of the functional organ. METHODS: (1) In vitro study: VX tumor cells were subcultured and subjected to HYP-PDT. (2) In vivo study: A laryngeal cancer model was developed in which 12 rabbits were inoculated with a VX tumor suspension in the submucosal area of the left vocal fold using a transoral approach. All rabbits underwent NIR transillumination using light with a wavelength of 780 nm. The survival periods of the three treatment groups (6 rabbits in Group A: HYP-PDT, 3 each in Groups B and C: laser irradiation or HYP administration only) were analyzed. RESULTS: The higher the HYP concentration, the lower the VX cell viability in response to HYP-PDT using 590 nm LED. Following HYP-PDT, small tumors in Group A-1 rabbits healed completely and the animals demonstrated a long survival period, and larger tumors in Group A-2 healed partially with a survival period that extended over 3 weeks after inoculation. The survival of Groups B and C were not different over the first 3 weeks of the study, and were shorter than in Group A. CONCLUSION: We found HYP-PDT could be a curative therapy for early-stage cancers that may also preserve organ function, and may inhibit tumor progression and metastasis during advanced stages of laryngeal cancer.

The placenta has a methylome dramatically unlike that of any somatic cell type. Among other distinctions, it features low global DNA methylation, extensive “partially methylated domains” packed in dense heterochromatin and methylation of hundreds of CpG islands important in somatic development. These features attract interest in part because a substantial fraction of human cancers feature the exact same phenomena, suggesting parallels between epigenome formation in placentation and cancer. Placenta also features an expanded set of imprinted genes, some of which come about by distinctive developmental pathways. Recent discoveries, some from far outside the placental field, shed new light on how the unusual placental epigenetic state may arise. Nonetheless, key questions remain unresolved.

Objective Quarantine is the first response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Restricting daily life can cause several problems. This study aimed to measure the impact of the COVID-19 quarantine on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) by comparing to the pre-pandemic. Methods HRQoL during COVID-19 quarantine was surveyed online using EQ-5D index and matched to that of the pre-pandemic-extracted from nationwide representative data of the Korea Community Health Survey- with propensity scores. A beta regression for the EQ-5D scores and a logistic analysis for individual dimensions of the EQ-5D index were performed to measure the impact of the COVID-19 quarantine on health utility. Results The overall scores of the EQ-5D index were significantly higher in the group under quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic (0.971 SD 0.064) than those before the pandemic (0.964 SD 0.079, Diff. 0.007 SD 0.101, p = 0.043). The beta regression for the overall scores of EQ-5D revealed that quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic increased by 52.7% compared to normal life before the outbreak(p = 0.045). Specifically, “Depression/Anxiety” deteriorated significantly during quarantining (OR = 0.62, 95% CI:0.48–0.80). However, “Pain/Discomfort” and “Mobility” significantly improved (OR = 5.37, 95% CI:3.71–7.78 and OR = 2.05, 95% CI:1.11–3.80, respectively). Conclusion Although the world is facing a challenging moment that it has never been through before, mandatory quarantine has served as an experience that provided mental distress but physical comfort in the Korean context.

Macrophages play crucial roles in protecting our bodies from infection and cancers. As macrophages are multi-functional immune cells, they have diverse plastic subsets, such as M1 and M2, derived from naïve M0 cells. Subset-specific macrophage probes are essential for deciphering and monitoring the various activation of macrophages, but developing such probes has been challenging. Here we report a fluorescent probe, CDr17, which is selective for M1 macrophages over M2 or M0. The selective staining mechanism of CDr17 is explicated as Gating-Oriented Live-cell Distinction (GOLD) through overexpressed GLUT1 in M1 macrophages. Finally, we demonstrate the suitability of CDr17 to track M1 macrophages in vivo in a rheumatoid arthritis animal model.

The chondrogenesis of stem cells and cartilage tissue regeneration are more efficient in a three-dimensional (3D) environment than in a two-dimensional (2D) environment. Although extensive studies have examined the effects of biochemical or physical cues alone, it is not fully understood how these biochemical and biophysical cues in the 3D environment are intertwined and orchestrated with chondrogenesis for cartilage tissue regeneration. In this study, we used photocrosslinked hyaluronic acid (HA), the extracellular matrix of cartilage, as a general 3D microenvironment to characterize the effects of dimensionality, localization of biochemical cues, regulation of biophysical cues, and external stimulation on chondrogenic signaling pathways in adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs). TGF-β3 was immobilized in HA hydrogels by ionic or covalent conjugation. The stiffness of the hydrogels was tuned by varying the crosslinking density, and an external stimulus for chondrogenesis was provided by ultrasound. The results revealed that the levels of chondrogenic signals in hASCs cultured in the 3D HA hydrogel depended on the presence of TGF-β3, and a reduction in the stiffness of the TGF-β3 covalent conjugated hydrogel increased the chance of interaction with encapsulated hASCs, leading to an increase in chondrogenic signals. External stimulation with ultrasound increased the interaction of hASCs with HA via CD44, thereby increasing chondrogenesis. Our results present a new understanding of the intertwined mechanisms of chondrogenesis in 3D hydrogels connecting TGF-β3 sequestration, mechanical properties, and ultrasound-based external stimulation. Overall, our results suggest that when designing novel biomaterials for tissue engineering, it is necessary to consider the combinatorial mechanism of action in 3D microenvironments.

We aimed to compare cervical elastographic parameters based on a previous loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) and to determine whether they can predict preterm delivery in pregnant women with a history of LEEP. This multicenter prospective case–control study included 71 singleton pregnant women at 14–24 weeks of gestation with a history of LEEP and 1:2 gestational age-matched controls. We performed cervical elastography using E-cervix and compared maternal characteristics, delivery outcomes, cervical length (CL), and elastographic parameters between the two groups. The median mid-trimester CL was significantly shorter in the LEEP group. Most elastographic parameters, including internal os (IOS), external os (EOS), elasticity contrast index (ECI), and hardness ratio (HR), were significantly different in the two groups. In the LEEP group, the sPTD group compared to the term delivery (TD) group showed a higher rate of previous sPTD (50% vs. 1.7%, p 0.001), higher IOS and ECI (IOS: 0.28 [0.12–0.37] vs. 0.19 [0.10–0.37], p = 0.029; ECI: 3.89 [1.79–4.86] vs. 2.73 [1.48–5.43], p = 0.019), and lower HR (59.97 [43.88–92.43] vs. 79.06 [36.87–95.40], p = 0.028), but there was no significant difference in CL (2.92 [2.16–3.76] vs. 3.13 [1.50–3.16], p = 0.247). In conclusion, we demonstrated that a history of LEEP was associated with a change in cervical strain measured in mid-trimester as well as with CL shortening. We also showed that cervical elastography can be useful in predicting sPTD in pregnant women with previous LEEP.

Graphic abstract

While eye drops are the most common ocular dosage form, eye drops for treating diseases of the posterior segment (retina, choroid, optic nerve) have yet to be developed. In glaucoma, eye drops are used extensively for delivering intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering medications to the anterior segment. However, degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the retina may progress despite significant IOP lowering, suggesting that a complementary neuroprotective therapy would improve glaucoma management. Here, we describe a hypotonic, thermosensitive gel-forming eye drop for effective delivery of sunitinib, a protein kinase inhibitor with activity against the neuroprotective targets dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK) and leucine zipper kinase (LZK), to enhance survival of RGCs after optic nerve injury. Further, binding of sunitinib to melanin in the pigmented cells in the choroid and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) led to prolonged intraocular residence time, including therapeutically relevant concentrations in the non-pigmented retinal tissue where the RGCs reside. The combination of enhanced intraocular absorption provided by the gel-forming eye drop vehicle and the intrinsic melanin binding properties of sunitinib led to significant protection of RGCs with only once weekly eye drop dosing. For a chronic disease such as glaucoma, an effective once weekly eye drop for neuroprotection could result in greater patient adherence, and thus, greater disease management and improved patient quality of life.

This study aimed at the synthesis of heterogeneous acid catalysts by incorporating 12 tungstophosphoric acid (HPW) over mesoporous silica support KIT-6 via impregnation and sol-gel methods to improve the catalytic efficiency of the esterification reaction. The catalytic activity of the KIT-6 supported catalysts was investigated for esterification of oleic acid in the presence of MeOH. Synthesized catalysts were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy techniques. Characterization results showed the variation in porosity, roughness, presence of SiO2 and kegging structure after successful deposition of HPW over KIT-6 surface. Additionally, the textural property of synthesized catalysts was compared with highly active HPW and sulfated KIT-6. The ordered structure of mesoporous silica KIT-6 facilitated the dispersion of HPW resulting in better catalytic stability and activity. To evaluate the impact of synthesizing technique on catalytic activity and effectiveness of heterogeneous acid catalysts, loading of HPW over KIT-6 mesoporous silica was controlled between 10 to 30 wt%. Catalysts synthesized by impregnation and sol-gel methods showed the highest catalytic activity with 30-IM and 25-SG, respectively. The enhanced performance was ascribed to the improved textural property and amount of HPW, which led to higher activity, stability and reusability.

This study adapted two types of heterogeneous catalysts to the process of manufacturing biodiesel through a two-stage process using Jatropha oil as a raw material. The acid value of Jatropha oil prepared in this study was 11.3 mgKOH/g, and it could be reduced to less than 0.4 mgKOH/g via 2 h of esterification using the Amberlyst-15 catalyst. The pretreated oil was used as a raw material for transesterification in a Carberry spinning catalyst basket reactor equipped with a bead-type dolomite catalyst, as the bead-type dolomite catalyst prepared with 20 wt% pseudoboehmite sol as an inorganic binder was found to be the optimal catalyst for the transesterification reaction. The spent dolomite bead catalyst could be regenerated and reused twice without a loss of activity during transesterification. However, the catalyst when repeatedly regenerated three times nearly lost its active sites, which is attributed to the conversion of CaO to CaCO3 during the regeneration and reuse procedure.

In this paper, the principle and application of plasma are briefly described, and in particular, the principle and practical application for plasma generated in liquid are introduced. Also, the research results of water treatment, synthesis of metal nanoparticle, synthesis of visible light-responsive photocatalyst, synthesis of energy material, and hydrogen gas production, which were tested using liquid phase plasma, are introduced. Various water pollutants were treated and hydrogen gas was produced using the strong chemical oxidizing species and ultraviolet rays in the plasma field generated in the reactant aqueous solution during the liquid phase plasma (LPP) process. The effects of plasma discharge conditions, dissolved oxygen concentration, pH value, photocatalytic behavior, as well as the properties of organic solutions on the LPP reaction were investigated experimentally and reported. Based on these previous studies, metal nanoparticles were synthesized using hydrogen atom radicals as well as the numerous electrons in the plasma field generated during the LPP process. Additionally, these studies indicate that visible light-responsive photocatalysts can be obtained when metal nanoparticles are precipitated in TiO2. They also provide evidence that metal nanoparticles can be precipitated in various carbon materials for application as electrodes in secondary batteries and supercapacitors. Therefore, the LPP process has been successfully applied in various fields given that it can be easily and conveniently used, and presently it is being applied in several new fields and many possibilities for its future application are expected.