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Scurvy, a condition caused by vitamin C deficiency, is rare, especially in high-income countries. Symptoms of scurvy are typically characterised by dermatological disorders such as poor wound healing and tooth loss, but there is not usually cardiac involvement. A case of reversible pulmonary hypertension and right-sided heart failure owing to scurvy in a 7-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder is reported. He had a very restricted diet and presented with polyarthralgia, gingival hyperplasia with ecchymosis, and fatigue. His condition, including pulmonary hypertension and right-sided heart failure, completely resolved with vitamin C supplementation. Paediatricians should have a high index of suspicion for scurvy in children with nutritional selectivity and be aware that it can manifest with cardiac symptoms. Scurvy may be life-threatening if not treated, but the symptoms can improve rapidly with vitamin C supplementation.

Objectives The aim of this study was to describe baseline characteristics, and periprocedural and mid-term outcomes of patients undergoing transcatheter mitral valve interventions post-transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and examine their clinical benefit. Background The optimal management of residual mitral regurgitation (MR) post-TAVR is challenging. Methods This was an international registry of 23 TAVR centers. Results In total, 106 of 24,178 patients (0.43%) underwent mitral interventions post-TAVR (100 staged, 6 concomitant), most commonly percutaneous edge-to-edge mitral valve repair (PMVR). The median interval post-TAVR was 164 days. Mean age was 79.5 ± 7.2 years, MR was >moderate in 97.2%, technical success was 99.1%, and 30-day device success rate was 88.7%. There were 18 periprocedural complications (16.9%) including 4 deaths. During a median follow-up of 464 days, the cumulative risk for 3-year mortality was 29.0%. MR grade and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class improved dramatically; at 1 year, MR was moderate or less in 90.9% of patients (mild or less in 69.1%), and 85.9% of patients were in NYHA functional class I/II. Staged PMVR was associated with lower mortality versus medical treatment (57.5% vs. 30.8%) in a propensity-matched cohort (n = 156), but this was not statistically significant (hazard ratio: 1.75; p = 0.05). Conclusions For patients who continue to have significant MR, remain symptomatic post-TAVR, and are anatomically suitable for transcatheter interventions, these interventions are feasible, safe, and associated with significant improvement in MR grade and NYHA functional class. These results apply mainly to PMVR. A staged PMVR strategy was associated with markedly lower mortality, but this was not statistically significant. (Transcatheter Treatment for Combined Aortic and Mitral Valve Disease. The Aortic+Mitral TRAnsCatheter Valve Registry [AMTRAC]; NCT04031274 )

The recent past in the technological development evidenced that evolution in Nanotechnology and nanoscience is the key factor. Nanotechnology is multidisciplinary science which deals with physics, chemistry, materials science and other engineering sciences. The applications of Nanotechnology are spreading in almost all the branches of science and technology. The present review article highlighted the types of nanoparticles and their synthesis methods, characterization techniques. There are many techniques and applications are reported in the last five years but here we strictly focused on the general synthetic approaches and applications of the nanomaterials which provide a general idea to the young researchers.

In the current work composites are intentionally fabricated to achieve tough ideal properties to materials. Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are fabricated by powder metallurgical technique with mechanically alloyed ingredients such as aluminum (Al) and nano-Alumina (Al2O3) powders. This study also elucidates the effect of altering nano reinforcement content in Al matrix; on mechanical properties of Al/Al2O3 composites. Mechanical properties such as tensile strength, percentage of elongation and hardness are considered. Micro structural analysis like XRD, SAD reveals uniformity in distribution of nano reinforcement in the Al matrix. Prediction of tensile strength and efficacies of various trained artificial neural network (ANN) models are discussed on account off number of hidden layers and neurons.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection promotes autophagic degradation of viral replicative intermediates for sustaining replication and spread. The excessive activation of autophagy can induce cell death and terminate infection without proper regulation. A prior publication from this laboratory showed that an adaptive cellular response to HCV microbial stress inhibits autophagy through beclin 1 degradation. The mechanisms of how secretory and degradative autophagy are regulated during persistent HCV infection is unknown. This study was performed to understand the mechanisms of viral persistence in the absence of degradative autophagy, which is essential for virus survival. Using HCV infection of a CD63-green fluorescence protein (CD63-GFP), labeled stable transfected Huh-7.5 cell, we found that autophagy induction at the early stage of HCV infection increased the degradation of CD63-GFP that favored virus replication. However, the late-stage of persistent HCV infection showed impaired autophagic degradation, leading to the accumulation of CD63-GFP. We found that impaired autophagic degradation promoted the release of extracellular vesicles and exosomes. The impact of blocking the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) on virus survival was investigated in persistently infected cells and sub-genomic replicon cells. Our study illustrates that blocking EV and exosome release severely suppresses virus replication without effecting host cell viability. Furthermore, we found that blocking EV release triggers interferon lambda 1 secretion. These findings suggest that the release of EVs is an innate immune escape mechanism that promotes persistent HCV infection. We propose that inhibition of extracellular vesicle release can be explored as a potential antiviral strategy for the treatment of HCV and other emerging RNA viruses.

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although HCV clearance has been improved by the advent of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA), retrospective studies have shown that the risk of subsequent HCC, while considerably decreased compared with active HCV infection, persists after DAA regimens. However, either the mechanisms of how chronic HCV infection causes HCC or the factors responsible for HCC development after viral eradication in patients with DAA treatments remain elusive. We reported an in vitro model of chronic HCV infection and determined Wnt/β-catenin signaling activation due to the inhibition of GSK-3β activity via serine 9 phosphorylation (p-ser9-GSK-3β) leading to stable non-phosphorylated β-catenin. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated the upregulation of both β-catenin and p-Ser9-GSK-3β in HCV-induced HCC tissues. Chronic HCV infection increased proliferation and colony-forming ability, but knockdown of β-catenin decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis. Unexpectedly, Wnt/β-catenin signaling remained activated in chronic HCV-infected cells after HCV eradication by DAA, but metformin reversed it through PKA/GSK-3β-mediated β-catenin degradation, inhibited colony-forming ability and proliferation, and increased apoptosis, suggesting that DAA therapy in combination with metformin may be a novel therapy to treat HCV-associated HCC where metformin suppresses Wnt/β-catenin signaling for HCV-infected patients.

Foundation: Synthetic nanoparticles are rising as flexible devices in biomedical applications, especially in the territory of biomedical imaging. Nanoparticles of 1–100 nm in size have measurements equivalent to natural practical units. Assorted surface sciences, remarkable attractive properties, tunable retention and outflow properties, and late advances in the union and building of different nanoparticles recommend their potential as tests for disease. Surface functionalization has extended further the potential of nanoparticles as tests for atomic imaging.

Off-grid networks are recently emerging as a solution to connect the unconnected or provide alternative services to networks of possibly untrusted participants. The systems currently used, however, exhibit limitations due to their centralized nature and thus prove inadequate to secure trust. Blockchain technology can be the tool that will enable trust and transparency in such networks. In this paper, we introduce a platform for secure and privacy-respecting decentralized data sharing among untrusted participants in off-grid networks. The proposed architecture realizes this goal via the integration of existing blockchain frameworks (Hyperledger Fabric, Indy, Aries) with an off-grid network device and a distributed file system. We evaluate the proposed platform through experiments and show results for its throughput and latency, which indicate its adequate performance for supporting off-grid decentralized applications.

The development of environmentally benign, low-processing and low-cost approaches to the large-scale preparation of advanced nanomaterials based on the use of biological materials is currently attracting great interest. Here, we report the discovery that aqueous honey solutions reduce graphene oxide in a low-cost and an eco-friendly manner, yielding highly water dispersive functionalized reduced graphene sheets. The roles of honey in the reduction of graphene oxide of as-prepared graphene are demonstrated. The possible mechanism for the de-epoxidation of graphene oxide is elucidated. The fabricated a honey-reduced graphene oxide-based field-effect transistor exhibited ambipolar transfer characteristics, thereby demonstrating that the developed material may therefore have applications in electronic devices and sensors.

A sensitive and selective microfluidic immunochip was fabricated for detection of Salmonella typhimurium ( S. typhimurium ) bacterial cells. In this sensor, graphene oxide (GO) nano sheets wrapped carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (cMWCNTs) composite acted as a transducer material. The colloidal solution of GO-cMWCNTs composite was selectively deposited onto patterned indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode and sealed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micro channels. The S. typhimurium antibodies (StAb) were in situ biofunctionalized followed by EDC-NHS covalent chemistry via amidation reaction. The presence of abundant functional groups at the GO-cMWCNTs composite improved the loading of antibodies (StAb) against S . typhimurium leading to improved biosensing characteristics. Wrapping of cMWCNTs with GO resulted in superior electron transfer behavior enhancing the sensitivity (162.47 μA/CFU −1 /mLcm −2 ) almost two folds as compared to that based on GO (89.16 μA/CFU −1 /mLcm −2 ) sheets for bacterial cells detection. Besides this, GO wrapped cMWCNTs integrated microfluidics biosensor offered low detection limit as 0.376 CFU/mL and negligible interference due to presence of Escherichia coli ( E. coli (O157:H7).

Background Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common acquired heart disease in children of the developed world, and triggers progressive coronary artery lesions (CAL) in 30% of cases if left untreated. Despite standard anti-inflammatory treatment for KD, CAL (dilation or aneurysm) still occurs in 5–10% of children, increasing their risk for fatal coronary artery complications. CAL is mediated by enhanced matrix metalloproteinase activity and elastin breakdown induced by the inflammatory process in the coronary artery wall. Doxycycline is an effective inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases, and has been shown to reduce elastin breakdown and CAL in a mouse model of KD, but has not been evaluated in patients. Objective We aim to evaluate the efficacy of doxycycline in the prevention of CAL in children during the acute phase of KD. Design This is a phase II prospective, randomized, double-blinded, clinical trial in two steps. In Step 1, any child older than 1 month with the diagnosis of KD will be included. Children with KD will be included in Step 2 if they develop coronary artery dilation (z-score ≥ 2.5) within 20 days from the onset of fever. Study subjects in Step 2 will be randomized to receive a 3-week course of doxycycline or placebo. Evaluation The efficacy of a 3-week doxycycline course during the acute phase of KD will be evaluated by measuring the decline in coronary artery z-scores from baseline with doxycycline treatment compared to placebo. Clinical trial registration This study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT01917721 ).

We present a biomolecule assisted method for facile aqueous phase synthesis of Lead sulfide (PbS) nanocrystals using carboxymethyl cellouse (CMC) as the capping/stabilizing agent. At 0.05% w/v amount of CMC, the spherical-shaped PbS nanocrystals are formed. The amount of CMC is increased to 0.1% w/v with respect to the 0.05% w/v CMC, the aggregated nanowire networks are formed by the assembling of rod shaped PbS nanoparticles. When, the amount of CMC is decreased to 0.01% w/v with respect to the 0.05% w/v CMC, the aggregated nanowire networks are formed by the assembling of PbS nanoparticles with random shapes. The X–ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction pattern suggest that the crystalline structure of resulted PbS nanocrystals is cubic rock salt structure. The PbS nanocrystals stabilization is occurred through the interactions of hydroxyl (–OH) and carboxylate (–COO–) groups of CMC. The resulted bioconjugate semiconducting PbS nanocrystals were shown good catalytic activity for the chemical reduction of p-nitroaniline with sodium borohydride.

Latent magnetization in the multiferroics can be achieved via the structural distortion with respect to particle size and destroying the spiral spin structure, which plays the vital role in high-performance applications. In this investigation, multifunctional single phase Bi 1−x La x Fe 1−y Co y O 3 nanomaterials were synthesized by co-precipitation technique. The chemical composition, phase genesis, morphology and thermal characteristics of the Bi 1−x La x Fe 1−y Co y O 3 were studied by FTIR, XRD, SEM/EDS, TEM and TGA. XRD studies confirmed single phase distorted rhombohedral structure in Bi 1−x La x Fe 1−y Co y O 3 . The novelty in magnetic behavior of the Bi 0.85 La 0.15 Fe 0.75 Co 0.25 O 3 multiferroic at room temperature showed both ferro and anti-ferromagnetic nature with higher order remanent magnetization among other nanocomposites in this study. This magnetic anomaly in Bi 0.85 La 0.15 Fe 0.75 Co 0.25 O 3 is due to doping and size effects on the crystal structure that leads to spin-orbit interactions. Besides, Bi 0.85 La 0.15 Fe 0.75 Co 0.25 O 3 integrated graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite has shown the change in the magnetic hysteresis that indicates the effect of the semiconducting behavior of GO on the ordered magnetic moments in the multiferroic. This kind of magnetic anomaly could form advanced multiferroic devices.

Introduction Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is the standard of care for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) at excessive-, high- and intermediate-surgical risk. A proportion of patients referred for TAVI do not undergo the procedure and proceed with an alternate treatment strategy. There is scarce data describing the final treatment allocation of such patients. Hence, we sought to evaluate the final treatment allocation of patients referred for TAVI in contemporary practice. Methods We performed a single centre prospective observational study, including all patients with AS referred to our institution for TAVI between February 2014 and August 2017. Baseline demographic and clinical data were recorded. Patients were categorized according to treatment allocation: TAVI, surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or optimal medical therapy (OMT). Clinical outcomes were adjudicated according to VARC-2 definitions. All patients were discussed at a dedicated Heart Team meeting. Results Total of 245 patients were referred for TAVI assessment during the study period. Patients with moderate (N=32; 13.1%) and asymptomatic (N=31; 13.1%) AS were excluded. Subsequently, 53.9% (N=132) received TAVI, 12.7% (N=31) were managed with OMT, and 7.3% (N=18) had SAVR. Reasons for OMT included primarily: patient’s preference (N=12; 38.7%); excessive surgical risk (N=4; 12.9%) and severe frailty (N=5; 16.1%). Reasons for surgical referral included low surgical risk (N=11; 61.1%), excessive annulus size (N=5; 27.8%) and aortic root dilatation (N=2; 11.1%). Patients proceeding to SAVR had lower surgical risk than those in either the OMT or TAVI cohorts (P Conclusions Almost half of all patients with severe AS referred to a dedicated TAVI clinic did not receive a TAVI. A considerable proportion of patients were reclassified as moderate AS (13%), were asymptomatic (13%), or intervention was determined to be futile (13%) due to advanced frailty. Early detection and increased awareness of valvular heart disease are required to increase the number of patients that can benefit from TAVI.

We present a protein-assisted method for the facile and scalable synthesis of Cobalt sulfide (CoS) nanostructures with various morphologies using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a stabilizing agent. The CoS samples prepared from 10:1 volume ratio of Cobalt (Co):Sulfur (S) and 1:10 volume ratio of Co:S at 0.01% w/v amount of BSA shows 3D flowers with an average diameter of 510 nm and hollow spheres about 900 nm in average diameter, respectively. The CoS samples prepared from 0.01, 0.1 and 0.5% w/v amounts of BSA at 1:1 volume ratio of Co:S shows nanosheet based porous clusters, nanosheet based partially porous clusters and aggregated spheres, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study confirms that the obtained BSA stabilized CoS nanostructures are stabilized by hydroxyl and amine groups present in the BSA molecules.

Doping with heteroatoms has become an approach for improving the electrochemical performance of few-layered graphene. In this work, Sulfur-nitrogen co-doped few-layered graphene synthesized from the graphite flakes acid treated with H2SO4 and HNO3 followed by microwave irradiation. Sulfur-nitrogen co-doped few-layered graphene consists of less than 15 graphene layers with a high degree of graphitization. The supercapacitor exhibited a specific energy density of 15 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 300 W kg−1at room temperature in aqueous electrolyte. The S, N-FLG electrodes show the specific capacitance of 298 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1and stable over 10,000 continuous charge-discharge cycles with 95% capacitance retention at 1 A g−1. The obtained capacitance is due to maximum utilization of few-layered graphene sheets, highest intrinsic surface capacitance due to the synergetic effect of the formation of N-S-H hydrogen bonds and S, N co-doping in graphene aromatic rings.

A 14-month-old male presented with paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea and grade III/VI systolic ejection murmur at the upper left sternal border with an S4 gallop and was subsequently found to have a right ventricular cardiac myxoma. Prior presentations of these tumors have been with exertional syncope and murmur, asymptomatic murmur, or exertional dyspnea; the presentation of such a tumor with paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea is novel.

Sri Ramulu Torati,1 Venu Reddy,1 Seok Soo Yoon,2 CheolGi Kim1 1Department of Emerging Materials Science, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Daegu, South Korea; 2Department of Physics, Andong National University, Andong, South Korea Abstract: CoFe nanowires have been synthesized by the electrodeposition technique into the pores of a polycarbonate membrane with a nominal pore diameter of 50 nm, and the composition of CoFe nanowires varying by changing the source concentration of iron. The synthesized nanowire surfaces were functionalized with amine groups by treatment with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) linker, and then conjugated with streptavidin-Cy3 protein via ethyl (dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimideand N-hydroxysuccinimide coupling chemistry. The oxide surface of CoFe nanowire is easily modified with aminopropyltriethoxysilane to form an amine terminating group, which is covalently bonded to streptavidin-Cy3 protein. The physicochemical properties of the nanowires were analyzed through different characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Fluorescence microscopic studies and Fourier transform infrared studies confirmed the immobilization of protein on the nanowire surface. In addition, the transmission electron microscope analysis reveals the thin protein layer which is around 12–15 nm on the nanowire surfaces. Keywords: electrodeposition, biofunctionalization, streptavidin

Nanocomposite thin films (NCTF) of low-dimensional ZnSe and copper doped ZnSe integrated poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymer were developed via simple solution casting method. Herein, ZnSe and Cu:ZnSe nanoparticles were synthesized through the chemical reduction technique. The obtained low-dimensional nanoparticles and NCTFs were characterized by XRD, SEM/EDS, TEM, and FTIR analysis. Room temperature dielectric and ferroelectric characteristics of PVDF/ZnSe flexible NCTF exhibited superior dielectric and ferroelectric behavior with a high coercive field of 15.6 V. Whereas, the dielectric and ferroelectric characteristics were greatly diminished in the PVDF/Cu:ZnSe flexible NCTF was due to the conducting behavior of copper ions at the interface of the polymer network. These results indicated that the PVDF/ZnSe flexible NCTF will be a potential candidate for advanced electrical applications and device fabrication. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44983.

Amorphous titania coated magnetite (Fe3O4/TiO2) nanocubes were successfully synthesized through hydrolysis and condensation of titanium isopropoxide and iron sulfate heptahydrate using single reaction sonochemical process for catalytic applications. X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the crystal structure, size and morphology, elemental composition, metal–metal and metal–oxygen bonds of the core/shell nanocubes. Magnetic properties of the samples were measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer at room temperature. Catalytic measurements on the samples showed an excellent efficiency for the degradation of methylene blue, and this efficiency was further promoted remarkably by addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) within only 5 min of reaction time in the absence of ultraviolet irradiation. Even after recycling the sample for six times, the introduced catalyst was found to retain as much as 90% initial efficiency. A possible reaction mechanism for the sonochemical deposition of titania on the surface of magnetite nanocubes and also for the degradation process of methylene blue by the introduced catalyst was discussed.

Recent years have seen an increasing range of planar Hall resistive (PHR) sensor applications in the field of magnetic sensing. This study describes a new application of the PHR sensor to monitor a current. Initially, thermal drift experiments of the PHR sensor are performed, to determine the accuracy of the PHR signal output. The results of the thermal drift experiments show that there is no considerable drift in the signals attained from 0.1, 0.5, 1 and 2 mA current. Consequently, the PHR sensor provides adequate accuracy of the signal output, to perform the current monitoring experiments. The performances of the PHR sensor with bilayer and trilayer structures are then tested. The minimum detectable currents of the PHR sensor using bilayer and trilayer structures are 0.51 µA and 54 nA, respectively. Therefore, the PHR sensor having trilayer structure is the better choice to detect ultra low current of few tens nanoampere.

In this study, we fabricate an integrated microfluidic chip with a planar Hall effect (PHE) sensor for single magnetic bead detection. The PHE sensor was constructed with a junction size of 10 μm × 10 μm using a trilayer structure of Ta(3 nm)/NiFe(10 nm)/Cu(1.2 nm)/IrMn(10 nm)/Ta(3 nm). The sensitivity of the PHE sensor was 19.86 μV/Oe. A diameter of 8.18 μm magnetic beads was used, of which the saturation magnetization was ~2.1 emu/g. The magnetic susceptibility χ of these magnetic beads was calculated to be~0.14. The diluted magnetic beads solution was introduced to the microfluidic channel attributing a single bead flow and simultaneously the PHE sensor voltage was measured to be 0.35 μV. The integrated microchip was able to detect a magnetic moment of 1.98 × 10 ?10 emu.

A point-of-care diagnostic system has been developed to detect pathogenic bacteria rapidly, of which system contains a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor in cooperation with a magnetic bead coated by specific antibody against bacteria. MR sensor with Teflon passivation layer has been fabricated on organic substrate, being flexible and low cost material, and passivated by Teflon layer for maintaining flexibility. The performance of the MR sensor is demonstrated using Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 and its detection limit was found to be 1.3×10(8) cells/ml. Further, Escherichia coli is captured by immobilised anti-E. coli antibodies on the surface of the sensor and detected using magnetic bead labelled with anti-E. coli antibody. The detection limit of E. coli was found to be 1.2×10(3) cells/ml. The technique is simple, rapid, sensitive and does not require pre-treatment of the sample and can detect a variety of microorganisms. The high performance of sensor fabricated on flexible organic substrate may allow its future use for bio-applications in implantable types of devices.

We present a facile synthesis of bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugated low-dimensional ZnS nanocrystals. The experimental parameters such as effects of BSA concentration and precursor vol ratios of Zn:S on the formation of ZnS nanoparticles in BSA matrix were investigated. The ZnS crystalline sizes of 1.9, 1.8 and 1.6 nm were obtained by using the BSA concentrations of 1 × 10−4, 5 × 10−4 and 10 × 10−4 g/mL, respectively, with a fixed Zn:S vol ratio of 1:1. The ZnS samples prepared from 1:10 and 10:1 vol ratios of Zn:S at BSA concentration of 5 × 10−4 g/mL shows the crystalline sizes of ZnS are 2.1 and 1.5 nm, respectively. FT−IR analysis suggests that the prepared ZnS nanoparticles might be conjugated through the interactions of hydroxyl and amine groups present in BSA. We evaluate the cytotoxicity of the prepared ZnS nanoparticles, the THP-1 cells showed a good viability (>88%) for all the prepared ZnS samples. The plausible mechanism for the formation of ZnS-BSA composite has also been discussed.