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Infant birth weight has increased recently, representing an obstetric and potentially a public health problem since high birth weight involves a risk of obesity later in life. Maternal nutritional status is important for fetal growth and therefore relationships between maternal body weight and composition v. birth weight and infant subcutaneous adipose tissue were investigated in twenty-three healthy women and their newborn infants using multiple and simple linear regression analysis. Furthermore, using previously published data for nineteen infants, it was demonstrated that an anthropometric method could provide useful estimates of the amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue. Birth weight was correlated with the maternal content of total body fat (TBF) both before pregnancy and in gestational week 32 and, together with gestational age at birth, TBF (%) before pregnancy explained 45% of the variation in birth weight. This figure was not increased when gestational gains in weight or TBF were added to the model. Furthermore, in infants, birth weight correlated with the amount of their subcutaneous adipose tissue. Together maternal TBF (%) and amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue in infants explained 61???63% of the variation in birth weight while the amount of infant subcutaneous adipose tissue alone explained only 55%. The maternal TBF content is likely to be important for the recent increase in birth weight. This factor probably causes a general augmentation in fetal growth rather than a specific stimulation of adipose tissue growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Breeding programs have developed high-yielding Coffea arabica F1-hybrids as an adaptation against adverse conditions associated with climate change. However, theresponse to drought of coffee F1 hybrids has seldom been assessed. Methods: A trial was established with five C. arabica genotypes (2 pure lines: Catimor and Marsellesa and 3 F1 hybrids: Starmaya, Centroamericano and Mundo Maya) planted under the leguminous tree species Leuceana leucocephala. Coffee growth, yield and physiological responses were assessed under a rain-fed (control: CON) and a rainfall reduction treatment (RR) for 2 years. Results: The RR treatment created a long-term rainfall deficit in a region with suboptimal temperature similar to those predicted by climate change scenarios. Moreover, the RR treatment reduced soil water content by 14% over 2 successive years of production and increased hydric stress of the three F1-hybrids (leaf water potentials averaged -0.8 MPa under RR compared with -0.4 MPa under CON). Under RR, coffee yields were reduced from 16 to 75% compared to CON. Mundo Maya F1 hybrid was the sole high-yielding genotype apable of sustaining its yield under RR conditions. Our results suggested that its significant increase in fine root density (CON = 300 and RR = 910 root.m-2) and its maintenance of photosynthetic rate (2.5 – 3.5 mmol CO2 m-2 s-1) at high evaporative demand might explain why this genotype maintained high yield under RR condition. Discussion: This work highlights a possible drought tolerance mechanism in fruit bearing adult coffee trees where the plant fine root number increases to intake more water in order to preserve turgor and sustainphotosynthesis at high ETo and therefore conserves high yield in dry conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented demand for sophisticated, self-powered, compact, ultrafast, cost-effective, and broadband light sensors for a myriad of applications has spurred a lot of research, precipitating in a slew of studies over the last decade. Apart from the photosensing ability of an active element in the light sensor, the device architecture is crucial in terms of photoinduced charge carrier generation and separation. Since the inception of graphene and the subsequent research growth in the atomically thin 2D materials, researchers have developed and adapted different families of 2D materials and device architectures, including single element 2D, 0D/2D, 2D/2D, 1D/2D stacked structures, and so on. This review discusses the recent reports on the light-sensing properties of various 2D materials, their heterostructures, and characteristics applicable to the ultraviolet-near infrared (UV-NIR), short-wave IR (SWIR), mid-wave IR (MWIR), long-wave IR (LWIR), and terahertz (THz) spectral ranges. It highlights the novelty of the burgeoning field, the heightened activity at the boundaries of engineering and materials science, particularly in the generation of charge carriers, their separation, and extraction, and the increased understanding of the underpinning science through modern experimental approaches. Devices based on the simultaneous effects of the pyro-phototronic effect (PPE) and the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect, the photothermoelectric effect (PTE)-assisted photodetectors (PDs), waveguide-integrated silicon-2D PDs, metal-2D-metal PDs, and organic material PDs are examined rigorously. Theoretical treatment utilizing various computational approaches to investigate 2D materials and heterostructures for photodetection applications is also briefly discussed. At the end, current challenges and solutions to enhance the figures of merit of photodetectors are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Flow cytometry (FC) is probably the most important technique for single-cell analysis. It's precisely, rapid, and suitable for multidimensional single-cell analysis. The commonly used side scatter (SSC) intensity determined by FC is often interpreted as a measure of the internal cellular complexity of cells. In simple terms, the more structured a cell is, the higher the SSC intensity quantified by FC. Nevertheless, most of the studies that support this interpretation are based on data derived from animal or human cell lines and while it is assumed that the results can also be transferred to plant or algal cell lines, the details remain unclear. The objective of the recent work is to clarify the interpretation of the SSC signal from algal cells. Results: Algal lipid droplets and their starch play an inherent role to shape the popular SSC signal derived from FC. This was shown by a theoretical approach based on Lorenz–Mie theory. These results were supported by experiments with different model cultures of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in which a high linear correlation was observed between the SSC signal and the 'physical' starch quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nowadays, many dairy sheep farms opt for milk replacers after birth. Weaning lambs from milk replacers is expected to be a stressful situation. Methods: With the aim of researching this practice on the animal behavior, body weight yields, and sanitary status of Lacaune lambs, 60 healthy animals from the same lambing house were employed. Lambs were housed in a pen and had ad libitum access to forage, compound feed, and milk replacers. During a 4  days preexperimental period in which all the animals were fed with milk replacers, behavior, hematologic parameters, body weight and seric and fecal stress indicators were recorded. Later, an experimental period took place in which 20  lambs remained in the same conditions. Another 20  lambs were kept in a separate pen in the same barn under the same conditions, but the artificial milk feeding was interrupted (weaning). The third 20  lambs were weaned and also rehoused in fattening pens. After 4  days, the variables previously recorded in the three groups during the pre-experimental period were recorded again. Results: Results showed that change of location and change of feed can have different and synergic effects on the behavior of the lambs. Change of feed had not specifically different effect on body weight than change of location. In the other hand, weaning had no significative effects on hematologic parameters and seric and fecal stress indicators. Discussion: Weaning from artificial milk had significative effects on lambs weight and behavior. More research is needed to improve this ethical aspect in ovine production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is an efflux transporter which is abundantly expressed at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and which has been implicated in the pathophysiology of various brain diseases. The radiolabelled antiemetic drug [11C]metoclopramide is a P-gp substrate for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of P-gp function at the BBB. To assess whether [11C]metoclopramide can detect increased P-gp function in the human brain, we employed drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) as a model disease with a well characterised, regional P-gp up-regulation at the BBB. Methods: Eight patients with drug-resistant (DRE) TLE, 5 seizure-free patients with drug-sensitive (DSE) focal epilepsy, and 15 healthy subjects underwent brain PET imaging with [11C]metoclopramide on a fully-integrated PET/MRI system. Concurrent with PET, arterial blood sampling was performed to generate a metabolite-corrected arterial plasma input function for kinetic modelling. The choroid plexus was outmasked on the PET images to remove signal contamination from the neighbouring hippocampus. Using a brain atlas, 10 temporal lobe sub-regions were defined and analysed with a 1-tissue-2-rate constant compartmental model to estimate the rate constants for radiotracer transfer from plasma to brain (K1) and from brain to plasma (k2), and the total volume of distribution (VT = K1/k2). Results: DRE patients but not DSE patients showed significantly higher k2 values and a trend towards lower VT values in several temporal lobe sub-regions located ipsilateral to the epileptic focus as compared to healthy subjects (k2: hippocampus: +34%, anterior temporal lobe, medial part: +28%, superior temporal gyrus, posterior part: +21%). Conclusions: [11C]Metoclopramide PET can detect a seizure-induced P-gp up-regulation in the epileptic brain. The efflux rate constant k2 seems to be the most sensitive parameter to measure increased P-gp function with [11C]metoclopramide. Our study provides evidence that disease-induced alterations in P-gp expression at the BBB can lead to changes in the distribution of a central nervous system-active drug to the human brain, which could affect the efficacy and/or safety of drugs. [11C]Metoclopramide PET may be used to assess or predict the contribution of increased P-gp function to drug resistance and disease pathophysiology in various brain diseases. Trial registration: EudraCT 2019-003137-42. Registered 28 February 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small satellites are efficient at performing Earth science from space due to their limited cost and size. Small satellites (cubesats) achieve much with limited power production/storage, heat dissipation, data storage, and ground contact points/bandwidth. As such it is beneficial to offload as much as possible to ground support systems. Consider the HyperAngular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) Cubesat. Its goals were to serve as a technical demonstration prior to the development of HARP2 aboard the NASA Plankton Aerosol Cloud and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission and to serve as an Earth viewing remote sensing platform which measured the characteristics of clouds and aerosols. HARP cubesat was limited to taking 5-minute capture sequences once every 24 h. It took approximately 10 such captures before it needed to perform data downlink and have its memory cleared for continued use. A ground station at NASA Wallops supported HARP with approximately three points of contact each day. To maximize the value of each capture, ground support software was developed leveraging public data to inform the schedule of each capture. In this paper, we review the algorithms and data sources that allowed us to: 1; predict the HARP orbital track a week in advance, 2; predict also the location of other remote sensing satellites and ground stations relative to HARP, 3; predict the ground view geometry of the instrument along its orbital track, 4; compare global climatological data products of clouds and aerosols along the predicted orbital tracks, and 5; identify and integrate important ground target locations based on remote sensing literature and ongoing natural phenomena. This HARP Orbital Prediction System (HOPS) made HARP into a successful technical demonstration which also offered significant science value. The HOPS system presents a valuable methodology for small satellites to operate efficiently despite their limited capabilities. HOPS is also a useful testbed for studying the sensitivity of scene geometry. Using HOPS, we show that for a wide field-of-view (FOV) instrument, like HARP, latitude/longitude geolocation varies by approximately 0.1+ at a height of 8-10 km. Scattering angles vary less than 0.01+ at similar heights, with the worst performance near direct backscatter (180+). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opioid analgesic tolerance (OAT), among other central side effects, limits opioids' indispensable clinical use for managing chronic pain. Therefore, there is an existing unmet medical need to prevent OAT. Extrasynaptic N-methyl D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) containing GluN2B subunit blockers delay OAT, indicating the involvement of glutamate in OAT. Glycine acts as a co-agonist on NMDARs, and glycine transporters (GlyTs), particularly GlyT-1 inhibitors, could affect the NMDAR pathways related to OAT. Chronic subcutaneous treatments with morphine and NFPS, a GlyT-1 inhibitor, reduced morphine antinociceptive tolerance (MAT) in the rat tail-flick assay, a thermal pain model. In spinal tissues of rats treated with a morphine–NFPS combination, NFPS alone, or vehicle-comparable changes in µ-opioid receptor activation, protein and mRNA expressions were seen. Yet, no changes were observed in GluN2B mRNA levels. An increase was observed in glycine and glutamate contents of cerebrospinal fluids from animals treated with a morphine–NFPS combination and morphine, respectively. Finally, GlyT-1 inhibitors are likely to delay MAT by mechanisms relying on NMDARs functioning rather than an increase in opioid efficacy. This study, to the best of our knowledge, shows for the first time the impact of GlyT-1 inhibitors on MAT. Nevertheless, future studies are required to decipher the exact mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite a variability in response and a narrow therapeutic index, Lithium (Li) remains the gold standard treatment for bipolar disorders (BD), and a treatment of choice for unipolar disorders (UD). Red blood cell Li concentration (RBCLiC) and red blood cell/plasma Li ratio (LiR) have been studied in many areas of mood disorders (such as acute or chronic Li efficacy, adherence, side effects (SE), intoxication management) as well as in several research domains. This systematic review aims to synthesize the existing literature. Methods: We conducted a systematic review, based on preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and Metanalysis (PRISMA) guidelines, of articles published between 1972 and February 2023, indexed in the following databases: EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library. The search terms were combinations of the following headings: "Lithium AND Plasma AND Erythrocyte AND Mood disorders". The systematic review protocol was published to PROSPERO (CRD42023406154). Results and conclusion: Out of the 252 identified studies, 57 met the selection criteria. The articles investigated the interest of RBCLiC and other blood parameters (PLiC and LiR) in various areas: (i) disease management (31 articles) (compliance/adherence (5 articles), SE/toxicity (13 articles), prediction of Li response/therapeutic efficacy for acute episode or for relapse prevention (17 articles)), (ii) Li blood parameters as trait markers of mood disorders subtypes (UD, BDI, BDII) (16 articles), (iii) Li blood parameters as state markers of mood episodes (11 articles), (iv) factors influencing Li blood parameters (age, gender, ethnicity, dosage and duration of Li treatment, co-medications with other treatments, seasonality) associated with RBCLiC or LiR (24 articles), and (v) potential pathophysiological mechanisms (30 articles). Conclusion: Overall, this review suggests that RBCLiC or LiR could be of interest for tolerance monitoring. However, the heterogeneity of methods and results, coupled with the limited amount of data, does not allow clear conclusions to be drawn in the other areas explored in this literature review. Given the potential interest in exploring brain Li pharmacokinetics (PK)s, this review calls for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many regions of Ethiopia, particularly in the study area, high‐quality livestock feed is scarce, particularly during the dry season. Indigenous browse species could potentially offer alternative sources of feed, but their potential has not been fully exploited, owing to a lack of detailed information. Without detailed information on the nutritional value of indigenous browse species, it is difficult to assess their suitability as feed sources. This knowledge gap indicates that even if these plants are abundant, they may not be used effectively because their nutritional benefits are not well understood. The objective of the present study was to fill this gap by systematically evaluating the biomass yield and nutritional content of indigenous browse species. The mean biomass yields for various indigenous browse species varied significantly (p < 0.05) among species, with Ficus thonningii producing the highest, whereas the biomass yields of Vernonia amygdalina were the lowest. Arundinaria species exhibited the highest NDF content (68.5%), whereas V. amygdalina had the lowest NDF content (46.8%). The crude protein content varied significantly (p < 0.05) among the species, with Acacia albida having the highest (20.3%), whereas the crude protein content of Carissa edulis was the lowest (13.3%). Hence, the crude protein content of all indigenous browse species is sufficient to meet the maintenance needs of cattle, sheep, and goats because, as stated by Kearl and NRC, the crude protein levels required for maintenance in these animals range from 7% to 10%. The crude protein content of indigenous browse species is sufficient to meet the milk production requirements of sheep and goats because the crude protein levels required for milk production for these animals range from 12% to 16%. For lactating dairy cows and growing beef cattle, Kearl recommended CP values of 14%–18% and 12%–16% required, respectively. Therefore, indigenous livestock producers should incorporate these species into their production systems to enhance productivity. This approach can also help mitigate the high costs associated with concentrate feeds, which are typically expensive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sleep deprivation is common in intensive care units (ICUs) and may alter respiratory performance. Few studies have assessed the role of sleep disturbances on outcomes in critically ill patients. Objectives: We hypothesized that sleep disturbances may be associated with poor outcomes in ICUs. Methods: Post-hoc analysis pooling three observational studies assessing sleep by complete polysomnography in 131 conscious and non-sedated patients included at different times of their ICU stay. Sleep was assessed early in a group of patients admitted for acute respiratory failure while breathing spontaneously (n = 34), or under mechanical ventilation in patients with weaning difficulties (n = 45), or immediately after extubation (n = 52). Patients admitted for acute respiratory failure who required intubation, those under mechanical ventilation who had prolonged weaning, and those who required reintubation after extubation were considered as having poor clinical outcomes. Durations of deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and atypical sleep were compared according to the timing of polysomnography and the clinical outcomes. Results: Whereas deep sleep remained preserved in patients admitted for acute respiratory failure, it was markedly reduced under mechanical ventilation and after extubation (p < 0.01). Atypical sleep was significantly more frequent in patients under mechanical ventilation than in those breathing spontaneously (p < 0.01). REM sleep was uncommon at any time of their ICU stay. Patients with complete disappearance of REM sleep (50% of patients) were more likely to have poor clinical outcomes than those with persistent REM sleep (24% vs. 9%, p = 0.03). Conclusion: Complete disappearance of REM sleep was significantly associated with poor clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unique properties possessed by transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) attract much attention in terms of investigation of their formation and dependence of their characteristics on the production process parameters. Here, we investigate the formation of TMD films during chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in a mixture of thermally activated gaseous H2S and vaporized transition metals. Our observations of changes in morphology, Raman spectra, and photoluminescence (PL) properties in combination with in situ measurements of the electrical conductivity of the deposits formed at various precursor concentrations and CVD durations are evidence of existence of particular stages in the TMD material formation. Gradual transformation of PL spectra from trion to exciton type is detected for different stages of the material formation. The obtained results and proposed methods provide tailoring of TMD film characteristics necessary for particular applications like photodetectors, photocatalysts, and gas sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted with the goal of isolation, characterization, optimization and exploitation of the cadmium (Cd) bioremediation potential of Cd-resistant bacterial strains from the Holy Kali Bein, Punjab, India. From biochemical analysis, protein-based identification by using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF) and 16S rRNA sequencing the isolate KCd7 identified as Aeromonas caviae, KCd8 as Exiguobacterium indicum and isolate KCd9 as Acinetobacter haemolyticus. The isolates KCd7, KCd8 and KCd9 exhibited high degree of Cd resistance, up to 400, 400 and 500 mg/L respectively, with multiple antibiotic resistances (MAR) index above 0.0, 0.08 and 0.016 respectively. The optimal conditions were recorded as: initial metal concentration 150 mg/L, temperature 37 °C for all three isolates, pH 8 for KCd7 and pH7.5 for KCd8 and KCd9. Results showed that the isolates KCd7, KCd8 and KCd9 can remove 100% within 168 h and 70% within 168 h and 100% within 144 h of Cd respectively. The study's results demonstrated that the bacterial isolate KCd9 (Acinetobacter haemolyticus) is more effective than other bacterial isolates since it can completely eliminate cadmium from the aqueous medium in just 144 h and it came to the conclusion that these bacteria have the potential for bioremediation of cadmium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]