bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fabrication and characterization of shape memory polyurethane porous scaffold for bone tissue engineering
Authors: Yu Juhong , Xia Hong , Teramoto Akira , Ni Qing‐Qing 
Published: January 2017

AbstractTissue engineering is a promising alternative for treating bone defects. However, improvements in scaffold design are needed to precisely match the irregular boundaries of bone defects as well as facilitate clinical application. In this study, a shape memory polyurethane scaffold was fabricated using a salt‐leaching‐phase inverse technique. Different sizes of salts were used to obtain scaffolds with different pore sizes. Scanning electron microscope, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X‐ray micro‐computed tomography analysis confirmed that three‐dimensional porous polyurethane scaffolds were obtained. The mechanical properties and biocompatibility of the scaffolds were analyzed by compression testing, thermal mechanical analysis, and cell experiments with osteosarcoma MG‐63 cells. The results revealed that the scaffolds had good mechanical properties and shape memory properties for bone repair, and also had the ability to promote cell proliferation. Thus, this scaffold design has good prospects for application to bone tissue engineering. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 1132–1137, 2017.
Quantitative determination of nine water‐soluble vitamins in the complex matrix of corn steep liquor for raw material quality assessment
Authors: Hofer Alexandra , Herwig Christoph 
Published: January 2017

AbstractBACKGROUNDAlthough raw materials such as corn steep liquor (CSL) are commonly used as supplements in media for biotechnological production of valuable products such as antibiotics, however, determination of the composition of CSL is still a scarcely explored field of research. Especially for some B‐vitamins, which are badly soluble and compose just a small fraction in CSL, no adequate analytical method has been published yet.RESULTSIn this study we adopted a RP‐HPLC‐UV method for the simultaneous determination of nine water‐soluble vitamins (biotin, cyanocobalamin, folic acid, niacin amide, nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, riboflavin, thiamine) and evaluated six different methods for the extraction of vitamins from CSL (two liquid–liquid extractions and four enzymatic extractions). The proposed method showed relative errors of about 2%; LOD and LOQ were ranged between 0.07 and 0.875 µg mL−1 and 0.2 and 2.5 µg mL−1, respectively, deviating just for the low absorbing pantothenic acid. The method was successfully applied to eight CSL samples which differed in manufacturer and corn quality (dried or wet corn). Seven out of nine vitamins could be identified in CSL and correlations between some vitamins and manufacturer (i.e. nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid and biotin) and quality (i.e. thiamine, pyridoxine and cyanocobalamin), respectively, could be observed.CONCLUSIONThe variation in vitamin composition found in the different CSL samples points out the importance of an incoming inspection of CSL to reduce variations in bioprocesses which are caused by raw material variability. This contribution provides a valuable quantitative tool for this task. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry
Tibial Nerve Block Using an Ultrasound‐Guided Inframalleolar Medial Plantar Nerve Perineural Injection: A Technical Note
Authors: Burke Christopher J. , Adler Ronald S. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractSonographic‐guided tibial nerve block allows for rapid anesthetization of the heel and plantar regions of the foot. We describe a variant technique for tibial nerve regional anesthesia utilizing perineural injection of the medial plantar nerve proximal to the sustentaculum tali where the nerve is superficial and readily accessed, with resultant retrograde flow of local anesthetic proximally. Perineural injection of the medial plantar nerve at the inframalleolar level provides a simple, safe, and effective alternative method to achieve tibial nerve block for regional anesthesia in a variety of procedures. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:134–137, 2017
Comparative binding to DR4 and DR5 receptors of TRAIL and BNNTs/PAHE/mPEG‐DSPE/TRAIL nanoparticles
Authors: Guillaume Yves Claude , André Claire 
Published: January 2017

AbstractTRAIL is a member of the tumor necrosis factor family of cytokines, which induces apoptosis of cancer cells, thanks to its binding to its cognate receptors DR5 and DR4. We have recently demonstrated that nanovectorization of TRAIL with single‐walled carbon nanotubes enhanced TRAIL affinity to DR5. In this paper, 1‐pyrenebutyric acid N‐hydroxysuccinimide ester functionalized boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) were used to anchor the TRAIL protein. The resulting BNNT/1‐pyrenebutyric acid N‐hydroxysuccinimide ester nanotubes were mixed with methoxy‐poly(ethylene glycol)‐1,2‐distearoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphoethanolamine‐N‐conjugates so as to allow a good dispersion of these nanoparticle TRAIL (NPT) in aqueous solution. The difference of binding between NPT and soluble TRAIL to DR4 and DR5 receptors was then studied by the use of affinity chromatography. DR4 and DR5 receptors were thus immobilized on a chromatographic support, and the binding of the 2 ligands TRAIL and NPT to DR4 and DR5 was studied in the temperature range 30°C to 50°C. Negative enthalpy (ΔH) values indicated that van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding are engaged favorably at the ligand‐receptor interface. It was shown that their rank‐ordered affinities were strongly different in the sequence TRAILDR4 < NPTDR4 < TRAILDR5 < NPTDR5, and the highest affinity for NPT to DR4 and DR5 receptors observed at low pHs was due to the less accessibility of the His molecular switch to be protonated when TRAIL was immobilized on BNNTs. Taken together, our results demonstrated that nanovectorization of TRAIL with BNNTs enhanced its binding to both DR4 and DR5 receptors at 37°C. Our novel nanovector could potentially be used for delivering TRAIL to cells for cancer treatment.
In silico characterization of enantioselective molecularly imprinted binding sites
Authors: Terracina Jacob J. , Sharfstein Susan T. , Bergkvist Magnus 
Published: January 2017

AbstractA 2‐step molecular mechanical and quantum mechanical geometry optimization scheme (MM ➔ QM) was used to “computationally imprint” chiral molecules. Using a docking technique, we show the imprinted binding sites to exhibit an enantioselective preference for the imprinted molecule over its enantiomer. Docking of structurally similar chiral molecules showed that the sites computationally imprinted with R‐ or S‐tBOC‐tyrosine were able to differentiate between R‐ and S‐forms of other tyrosine derivatives. The cross‐enantioselectivity did not hold for chiral molecules that did not share the tyrosine H‐bonding functional group orientations. Further analysis of the individual monomer‐target interactions within the binding site lead us to conclude that H‐bonding functional groups that are located immediately next to the chiral center and therefore spatially fixed relative to the chiral center will have a stronger contribution to the enantioselectivity of the site than those groups separated from the chiral center by 2 or more rotatable bonds. Here, we present our novel approach for computationally imprinting and characterizing enantioselective binding sites. All modeling schemes were designed to minimize the computational expense. In silico analysis of the properties of molecularly imprinted polymer systems will ultimately allow for the fabrication of more sensitive and selective materials.
Functional MRI of human pancreas using BOLD contrast: Responses following glucose ingestion
Authors: Chen Bozhu , Chen Weibo , Chan Queenie , Zhou Nan , He Jian , Zhou Zhengyang 
Published: January 2017

PurposeTo evaluate the response of the pancreas to glucose ingestion in healthy volunteers by blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Materials and MethodsThis study was approved by the local Ethics Committee, and informed consent was obtained from all subjects. A multiple gradient recalled echo (mGRE) sequence was performed on a 3.0T MR scanner in 12 healthy volunteers before and after glucose or water ingestion. Pancreatic
values were calculated from it at each timepoint, and changes following stimulation were analyzed using summary measures. The valley values and times were compared between the glucose and water ingestion by paired samples t‐test. The repeatability of the pancreatic
measurements was assessed by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and coefficient of variation (CV).ResultsPancreatic
measurements showed good repeatability (all ICC >0.75). CV for the six baseline acquisitions was 2.74 ± 0.97%, indicating a 5.37% measurement error. A transient but significant decrease (–6.88 ± 1.01%, P value, 0.0005–0.0467) in the pancreatic
values was observed within 5 minutes after glucose ingestion, rather than water consumption. Compared to water, glucose ingestion induced earlier (valley times: 3.46 ± 3.22 vs. 7.75 ± 4.09 min, P = 0.0006) and remarkable pancreatic
decrease (valley values: –15.33 ± 5.90% vs. –6.88 ± 3.11%, P = 0.0006).ConclusionBOLD MRI enabled noninvasive quantification of pancreatic
changes during glucose stimulation. Glucose ingestion resulted in a rapid and significant pancreatic
decrease in healthy young volunteers.Level of Evidence: 1Technical Efficacy: Stage 2J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2017;46:831–836
A novel two‐dimensional correlation coefficient for assessing associations in time series data
Authors: Dikbaş Fatih 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACTThe widely used Pearson's correlation coefficient calculated for assessing the linear relationship between two variables might produce misleading results especially in the comparison of periodic variables. A single correlation coefficient provides a measure of the overall dependence structure and generally might not be sufficient for assessing local differences between the variables (e.g. associations between each individual year might vary in hydrologic series). The reason for this deficiency is the consideration of the averages of the whole series while ignoring the variations of the local averages (e.g. annual averages or long year averages of months) throughout the observations. This study presents a two‐dimensional horizontal (row wise) and vertical (column wise) correlation calculation approach where the compared series are considered as two‐dimensional matrices in which each row represents a sub‐period (e.g. one calendar year of the precipitation data) of the investigated time series data. The method applies a normalization procedure by considering the averages of all rows (namely local averages) for calculating the horizontal correlation and the averages of all columns for calculating the vertical correlation instead of considering the averages of the whole matrices. This enables a separate determination of the degree of relationships between the rows and columns of the compared data matrices by using the horizontal and vertical variance and covariance values that constitute the base of the two‐dimensional correlation. The method is applied on 14 different linearly varying hypothetical matrices, 6 matrices for testing the influence of seasonal and inter‐annual variations and the monthly total precipitation records of 6 stations in southwest Turkey. The results have shown that the developed correlation approach assesses the two‐dimensional behaviour of time series data like precipitation and provides a measure which enables separate assessment of the contributions from the seasonal cycle vs. inter‐annual variability in the association between two time series.
Effect of black cumin seeds on growth performance, nutrient utilization, immunity, gut health and nitrogen excretion in broiler chickens
Authors: Kumar Pawan , Patra Amlan Kumar , Mandal Guru Prasad , Samanta Indranil , Pradhan Saktipada 
Published: January 2017

AbstractBACKGROUNDUse of antibiotic growth promoters (AB) as feed additives in broiler chickens poses risks due to cross‐resistance amongst pathogens and residues in tissues. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of black cumin seeds (BCS) as a natural growth promoter in chickens on nutrient utilization, intestinal microbiota and morphology, immunity, antioxidant status, protein deposition in muscles and nitrogen excretion.RESULTSBroiler chickens were fed BCS at 0, 5, 10 and 20 g kg−1 diet. Body weight gain tended to increase (P = 0.10) and daily feed intake increased quadratically with increasing concentrations of BCS in the diets. Supplementation of BCS resulted in a tendency to decrease feed conversion efficiency on days 28–42. Metabolizability of nutrients increased linearly with increasing doses of BCS. Protein deposition in thigh and breast muscles was increased and nitrogen excretion was reduced by BCS and AB compared with the control (CON). Intestinal morphology in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum was not generally affected by BCS. Counts of total bacteria, Escherichia coli, Lactobacillus spp. and Clostridium spp. were not affected by BCS and AB compared with CON, but Salmonella spp. decreased linearly (P = 0.05) with increasing doses of BCS. Antibody titers against Newcastle disease virus on day 35 increased quadratically (P < 0.001) with increasing doses of BCS. Concentrations of glucose and triglyceride in blood were not affected by BCS. Concentrations of cholesterol decreased linearly while the concentration of total protein increased linearly with increasing doses of BCS.CONCLUSIONThe use of dietary BCS may improve growth performance, immunity and nutrient utilization in broiler chickens. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry
A Polymer Interfacial Modifier Synthesized by Living Anionic Polymerization: Incorporation of Inorganic Blocks to Chain Ends
Authors: Yamamoto Kentaro , Hirai Tomoyasu , Oda Yukari , Kawaguchi Daisuke , Matsuno Hisao , Tanaka Keiji 
Published: January 2017

As a polymer interfacial modifier, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) terminated with elemental blocks of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) has been exploited through the phenomenon of preferential segregation in PMMA films. The modifier synthesized by living anionic polymerization using a bifunctional initiator is segregated at the surface in the mixture of PMMA due to a “buoy” effect of the POSS blocks. This further results in the surface wettability of PMMA being regulated on the basis of the amount of the modifier fed into the matrix. Finally, it is shown that the amount of the modifier in the PMMA films affects the cell proliferation behavior via the wettability.
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Two‐stage spectral preconditioners for iterative eigensolvers
Authors: Bergamaschi Luca , Martínez Ángeles 
Published: January 2017

SummaryIn this paper, we present preconditioning techniques to accelerate the convergence of Krylov solvers at each step of an Inexact Newton's method for the computation of the leftmost eigenpairs of large and sparse symmetric positive definite matrices arising in large‐scale scientific computations. We propose a two‐stage spectral preconditioning strategy: The first stage produces a very rough approximation of a number of the leftmost eigenvectors. The second stage uses these approximations as starting vectors and also to construct the tuned preconditioner from an initial inverse approximation of the coefficient matrix, as proposed by Martínez. In the framework of the Implicitly Restarted Lanczos method. The action of this spectral preconditioner results in clustering a number of the eigenvalues of the preconditioned matrices close to one. We also study the combination of this approach with a BFGS‐style updating of the proposed spectral preconditioner as described by Bergamaschi and Martínez. Extensive numerical testing on a set of representative large SPD matrices gives evidence of the acceleration provided by these spectral preconditioners.
Hemoglobin C trait accentuates erythrocyte dehydration in hereditary xerocytosis
Authors: Yang Elizabeth , Voelkel Erin B. , Lezon‐Geyda Kimberly , Schulz Vincent P. , Gallagher Patrick G. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractA 17‐year‐old male presented with acute hemolysis with stomatocytosis, elevated mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), and osmotic gradient ektacytometry consistent with marked erythrocyte dehydration. Erythrocytes from both parents also demonstrated evidence of dehydration with elevated MCHC and abnormal ektacytometry, but neither to the degree of the patient. Genetic studies revealed the patient had hereditary xerocytosis (HX) due to a novel PIEZO1 mutation inherited from his mother and hemoglobin C (HbC) trait inherited from his father. HbC trait accentuated the erythrocyte dehydration of HX. Coinheritance of interrelated disorders and/or modifier alleles should be considered whenever severe erythrocyte dehydration is observed.
An investigation of the key parameters for predicting PV soiling losses
Authors: Micheli Leonardo , Muller Matthew 
Published: January 2017

AbstractOne hundred and two environmental and meteorological parameters have been investigated and compared with the performance of 20 soiling stations installed in the USA, in order to determine their ability to predict the soiling losses occurring on PV systems. The results of this investigation showed that the annual average of the daily mean particulate matter values recorded by monitoring stations deployed near the PV systems are the best soiling predictors, with coefficients of determination (R2) as high as 0.82. The precipitation pattern was also found to be relevant: among the different meteorological parameters, the average length of dry periods had the best correlation with the soiling ratio. A preliminary investigation of two‐variable regressions was attempted and resulted in an adjusted R2 of 0.90 when a combination of PM2.5 and a binary classification for the average length of the dry period was introduced. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Palladium on carbon‐catalyzed direct C—H arylation polycondensation of 3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene with various dibromoarenes
Authors: Kojima Yoshihisa , Hayashi Shotaro , Koizumi Toshio 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACTWe have demonstrated a direct arylation polycondensation of 3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene with 2,7‐dibromo‐9,9‐dioctylfluorene using palladium on carbon (Pd/C) as a catalyst. Pd/C is a low‐cost solid‐supported palladium catalyst, giving one of the effective catalytic systems for direct arylation. The Pd/C‐catalyzed direct arylation polycondensation with acetic acid/potassium carbonate in N,N‐dimethylacetamide furnished a high molecular weight π‐conjugated alternating copolymer of EDOT‐fluorene (Mn = 89,300, Mw/Mn = 3.27) in high yield. The polycondensation of EDOT with various dibromoarenes was also achieved, giving EDOT‐carbazole, EDOT‐dialylamine, and EDOT‐bithiophene polymers. Optical and electrochemical properties of the polymers were also discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 55, 1183–1188
Thermocapillary approaches to the deliberate patterning of polymers
Authors: Singer Jonathan Phillip 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACTThe phenomenon of thermocapillarity, the response of fluids to thermal gradients due to thermal alteration of their surface tension, was first reported over a century ago. Since then, research has focused generally on either the fundamentals or mitigation of this effect during the processing of materials. Only in the past two decades has the deliberate use of thermocapillary forces for the patterning of polymers been actively pursued, either for the ordering of internal structure or the introduction of topographic features. This review seeks to highlight this work and to identify directions for further investigation. In particular, while thermocapillary forces are often inextricably bound to other mechanisms, there are emerging directions in the deliberate coupling of forces to improve the capabilities of each mechanism. Further, the applications of thermocapillary patterning to polymer‐nanoparticle composites has recently provided another promising route to active architectures. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017, 55, 1649–1668
Optimized syntheses of Fmoc azido amino acids for the preparation of azidopeptides
Authors: Pícha Jan , Buděšínský Miloš , Macháčková Kateřina , Collinsová Michaela , Jiráček Jiří 
Published: January 2017

The rise of CuI‐catalyzed click chemistry has initiated an increased demand for azido and alkyne derivatives of amino acid as precursors for the synthesis of clicked peptides. However, the use of azido and alkyne amino acids in peptide chemistry is complicated by their high cost. For this reason, we investigated the possibility of the in‐house preparation of a set of five Fmoc azido amino acids: β‐azido l‐alanine and d‐alanine, γ‐azido l‐homoalanine, δ‐azido l‐ornithine and ω‐azido l‐lysine. We investigated several reaction pathways described in the literature, suggested several improvements and proposed several alternative routes for the synthesis of these compounds in high purity. Here, we demonstrate that multigram quantities of these Fmoc azido amino acids can be prepared within a week or two and at user‐friendly costs. We also incorporated these azido amino acids into several model tripeptides, and we observed the formation of a new elimination product of the azido moiety upon conditions of prolonged couplings with 2‐(1H‐benzotriazol‐1‐yl)‐1,1,3,3‐tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate/DIPEA. We hope that our detailed synthetic protocols will inspire some peptide chemists to prepare these Fmoc azido acids in their laboratories and will assist them in avoiding the too extensive costs of azidopeptide syntheses.Experimental procedures and/or analytical data for compounds 3–5, 20, 25, 26, 30 and 43–47 are provided in the supporting information. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Peptide Science published by European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
DS6: anticandidal, antibiofilm peptide against Candida tropicalis and exhibit synergy with commercial drug
Authors: Singh Kusum , Shekhar Shashank , Yadav Yudhishthir , Xess Immaculata , Dey Sharmistha 
Published: January 2017

Antifungal peptides have gained interest as therapeutic agents in recent years because of increased multidrug resistance against present antifungal drugs. This study designed, synthesized and characterized antifungal activity of a small peptide analogue, DS6. This peptide was designed using the template from the N‐terminal part of the antifungal protein, Aspergillus giganteous. DS6 inhibited Candida tropicalis (ATCC 13803), as well as its clinical isolates. DS6 was found to be a fungicidal, killing the fungus very rapidly. DS6 is also non‐toxic to human cells. Synergistic interactions of DS6 with amphotericin B and fluconazole were also evident. DS6 is membrane lytic and exhibits antibiofilm activity against C. tropicalis. In conclusion, DS6 may have utility as an alternative antifungal therapy for C. tropicalis. Copyright © 2017 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.