Nanotechnology plays a promising role in biomedical applications, particularly tissue engineering. Recently, the application of magnetic scaffolds and pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) exposure has been considered in bone tissue regeneration. In this study, 3rd generation dendrimer-modified superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (G3-SPIONs) are synthesized comprehensively characterized. Magnetic polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers are prepared by incorporating G3-SPIONs within the electrospinning process ,and physicochemical characteristics ,as well as cytocompatibility and cell attachment are assessed. Eventually, the osteogenic differentiation ability of adipocyte-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) cultured on the magnetic scaffold with and without PEMF exposure was investigated by measurement of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium content. The expression of specific bone markers was studied using the Real-time PCR method. According to the results, G3-SPIONs with mean size and zeta potential of 17.95 ± 3.57 nm and 22.7 mV, respectively, show a high saturation magnetization (57.75 emu/g). Adding G3-SPIONs to PCL significantly decrease nanofibers size to 495±144 nm and improves cell attachment and growth. The ADMSCs cultured on the G3-SPION-PCL scaffold in the presence of osteogenic media (OM) and exposure to PEMF expressed the highest Osteocalcin and Runx2 and showed higher calcium content as well as ALP activity. It can be concluded that the synthesized G3-SPION incorporated PCL nanofibers serve as a promising magnetic scaffold for bone regeneration. Also, utilizing the magnetic scaffold in the presence of OM and PEMF provides a synergistic effect toward osteogenic differentiation of ADMSCs. Key Words: Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, Dendrimer, Polycaprolactone, Pulsed electromagnetic field, Bone tissue engineering

Rationale, Aims and Objectives Hospitals are complex organizations with a high potential for medical errors that can be influenced by safety culture, a central aspect in research and practice to increase patient safety. Safety climate as a measurable element of safety culture, illustrates the perception of safety-relevant aspects of health care staff at a certain time. The Safety Climate Survey (SCS) is applied internationally to measure safety climate. However, psychometrics for the German SCS have yet not been evaluated. Aim of this study is to explore the factor structure, reliability, and potential usefulness of the German SCS in Austrian acute care. Methods Cross-sectional online-surveys of physicians, therapists and nurses/midwives from eight hospitals from one hospital operator were implemented. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out, both, for the total sample and also split by two select professions (physicians, nurses/midwives). After deriving a factor structure for both professions, internal consistency and scale means were calculated for the subscales. Finally, mean subscale differences between physicians and nurses/midwives were tested. Results In summary, 933 respondents out of 5,160 eligible staff participated, reaching a response rate of 18.1%. A six-factor solution explaining 59.1% of total variance was identified in the total sample. Comparison by profession illustrated that the factor structures and item loading patterns differ between physicians (n=124) and nurses/midwives (n=713). To achieve an overarching solution, five items were excluded from consecutive subscale measures due to cross-loadings and contradictory factor loadings. Subscales demonstrated good to low internal consistency (α=0.794 to 0.535). Significant mean differences between subscales of professions were found relating to three factors. Conclusions The German SCS measures safety climate multi- rather than unidimensional, demonstrated limitations in factor structures and item loadings but overall satisfactory reliability of the subscales. When assessing safety climate, a multi-dimensional and profession-related approach must be explicitly considered.

Several hundred U mL-1 of Nattokinase (NK), a fibrinolytic enzyme, can be produced by culturing recombinant Bacillus subtilis in Luria-Bertani broth in a shaking flask. For use as a nutraceutical, large-scale preparation and a simple purification process is required. The present study utilized a fed-batch process with a pH-stat and low-glycerol-level-maintain feeding strategy to cultivate a B. subtilis strain carrying a pHT01 plasmid with an NK-encoding gene (B. subtilis/pHT01-aprN1). Finally, a NK activity of 7778 ±17.28 U mL-1 was obtained, which represented a 26-fold increase of NK activity by high cell density cultivation compared to the flask culture. Furthermore, fermentation supernatant was successively purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and nickel column affinity chromatography with a total NK recovery rate of 65.2%.

The Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) are essential to determine the genetic bases of either ecological or economic phenotypic variation across individuals within populations of model and non-model organisms. For this research question, current practice is the replication of the GWAS testing different parameters and models to validate the reproducibility of results. However, straightforward methodologies that manage both replication and tetraploid data are still missing. To solve this problem, we designed the MultiGWAS, a tool that does GWAS for diploid and tetraploid organisms by executing in parallel four software, two for polyploid data (GWASpoly and SHEsis) and two for diploids data (PLINK and TASSEL). MultiGWAS has several advantages. It runs either in the command line or in an interface. It manages different genotype formats, including VCF. It executes both the full and naïve models using several quality filters. Besides, it calculates a score to choose the best gene action model across GWASPoly and TASSEL. Finally, it generates several reports that facilitate the identification of false associations from both the significant and the best-ranked association SNP among the four software. We tested MultiGWAS with tetraploid potato data. The execution demonstrated that the Venn diagram and the other companion reports (i.e., Manhattan and QQ plots, heatmaps for associated SNP profiles, and chord diagrams to trace associated SNP by chromosomes) were useful to identify associated SNP shared among different models and parameters. Therefore, we confirmed that MultiGWAS is a suitable wrapping tool that successfully handles GWAS replication in both diploid and tetraploid organisms.

The production of purified virus particles with high quality and quantity for vaccine preparation requires scalable purification procedure in downstream step. A purification scheme based on combined strong anion-exchange and size exclusion chromatography (2D -AEC×SEC) is developed for production non-structural protein (NSP) free foot and mouth diseases (FMD) vaccine and the whole procedure is accomplished with 78 % recovery, 85 % virus yield and more than 90 % of residual DNA (rDNA) is removed from the purified vaccine. Due to use AEC as the first column, the injection volume increases four times compare to previous report. Alternatively, a mathematical modeling and simulation approach based on plate model chromatography are developed and matched with the experimental chromatography data to obtain better perception in predicting retention behavior and saving time in downstream scale-up method development. The analysis of purified virus particles by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), dynamic light scattering (DLS) high performance size exclusion chromatography (HP-SEC), matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and biological test provide to the best quality of purified FMD virus.

Electrospinning has been widely used for the development of fibrous scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering (TE), however their small pores significantly limit cell infiltration throughout the scaffolds, particularly in three-dimensional (3D) designs. In this endeavor, a direct incorporation of chondrocytes into the fibers mesh during the electrospinning presents itself as a promising solution by use of bio-electrospraying. Yet, for this technology to be effectively employed for cartilage TE, it is necessary to assess if chondrocytes are in any way adversely affected. So, in this work, several electrospraying experiments were performed by adjusting various operational parameters to evaluate their influence on chondrocyte viability and function. A high percentage of post-electrosprayed chondrocytes remained viable upon the exposure of an external electric field generated by low needle to collector distances and low applied voltages. No obvious differences were found with non-electrosprayed chondrocytes in terms of viability, morphology and proliferation. The data reported here further suggest that bio-electrospraying under the optimal operational conditions might be a promising alternative to the existent cell seeding techniques, promoting not only cells safe delivery to the scaffold, but also the development of highly cellularized and uniform tissue constructs for cartilage repair.

Hydrological series frequency analysis is a fundamental task for water resources management and water conservancy project design. Given the deficiencies of higher distribution for the upper tail section of hydrological frequency curve and safer designing result of water conservancy project utilizing empirical frequency formula and Pearson-III type function based curve fitting method, the normal cloud transform algorithm based approach for hydrological series frequency analysis was proposed through estimating sample empirical frequency by normal cloud transform algorithm, and determining the cumulative probability distribution curve by overlapping calculation of multiple cloud distribution patterns. It can be revealed from its application result in norther Anhui province, China that, the varying trend of cumulative probability distribution curve of annual precipitation derived from the cloud transform algorithm based method was basically consistent with the result obtained through traditional empirical frequency formula. Meanwhile, the upper tail section of annual precipitation frequency curve derived from cloud transform algorithm was distributing below the calculation result utilizing traditional empirical frequency formula, which indicated that the annual precipitation frequency calculation result utilizing cloud transform algorithm was more optimal than the corresponding result obtained by traditional empirical frequency formula. Therefore, the proposed cloud transform algorithm based approach was reliable and effective for hydrological series frequency analysis, which can be further applied in the related research field of hydrological process analysis.

Objective: The aim of this study is to define the correlation between intramyocardial left anterior descending artery (IMLAD) and coronary artery angiography (CAG); our clinical intraoperative experiences. Material and Methods: Between January 2014 and May 2019, 196 patients underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery in Bozok University Medicine Faculty Hospital. The correlation between the typical “wide-U” image of left anterior descending artery (LAD) depression(Cicekcioglu sign) on CAG and our intraoperative surgical observations of the patients were studied. Results: Of the 196 patients, 5 were excluded due to the total occlusion of proximal LAD. 30 had a typical “wide-U” image(Cicekcioglu sign) on CAG and 22 were observed to have an IMLAD. Of the 25 patients being observed to have IMLAD intraoperatively, 3 had a normal preoperative CAG imaging. The prevalence of the IMLAD was 13%. Sensitivity of CAG was measured as 88% and specificity of CAG was 95.1%. Discussion: In CAG, in case of LAD composing a “wide-U” imaging(Cicekcioglu sign) the image of LAD course is often observed to have a correlation with the intraoperative detection of IMLAD.

Abstract Rationale, Aims, and Objectives: To determine the extent to which nurses reportedly assess evidence-based falls risk factors and identify targeted prevention implemented for medical and surgical patients in China. Method: This was a multicenter retrospective observational study. Respondents were nurses working in medical and surgical units of Chinese 662 hospitals. Fall-risk factors assessments and targeted interventions by health professionals were collected online by the Nursing Management Committee of Chinese Nursing Association in China, in 2019. Results: A total of 68527 valid questionnaires were recovered (95.0%). In medical and surgical units, nurses were most likely to report assessing balance, mobility and strength (81.6%) and orthostatic hypotension (76.4%) for falls and least likely to continence (61.3%) and feet and footwear (55.8%). Appropriate footwear (79.3%) and managing syncope, dizziness and vertigo (73.8%) were the most frequently falls multiple interventions, while managing postural hypotension (48.8%) and cognitive imparement (48.4%) were the least. Nine fall-risk factors with clearly matched multifactorial interventions were determined in medical and surgical units (68.2%~ 97.5%). On comparative analysis, Cognitive therapy, Toileting-assistance, Indwelling catheter, Monitor postural blood pressure, Dizziness and vertigo interventions, Minimise asthma triggers, Educating medication use, Keeping floor surface clean and dry were more common in medical ward, while With the head of the bed raised, Assessments and referrals and Bed brakes locked in surgical ward. Conclusion: Health professionals are generally concerned about risk factors and prevention for falls with their patients in much of China, however limited attention was directed at the continence, feet and footwears assessment and managing cognitive imparement. Evidence-based prevention should be further tailored to the individual, based on an individual risk factors.

Accurate determination of animal diets is difficult. Methods such as molecular barcoding or metagenomics offer a promising approach, allowing quantitative and sensitive detection of different taxa. Here we show that rapid and inexpensive diet quantification is possible through metagenomic sequencing with the portable Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION. Using an amplification-free approach, we profiled the stomach contents from 24 wild-caught rats. We conservatively identified diet items from over 50 taxonomic orders, ranging across nine phyla, including plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, and fungi. This highlights the wide range of taxa that can be identified using this simple approach. We calibrated the accuracy of this method by comparing the characteristics of reads matching the ground-truth host genome (rat) to those matching diet items, and show that at the family-level, taxon assignments are approximately 97.5% accurate. Some inaccuracies may arise from database biases; we suggest a way to mitigate for database biases when using metagenomic approaches. Finally, we implemented a constrained ordination analysis and show that we can identify the sampling location of an individual rat within tens of kilometres based on diet content alone. This work establishes proof-of-principle for long-read metagenomic methods in quantitative diet analysis. We show that diet content can be quantified even with limited expertise, using a simple, amplification free workflow and a relatively inexpensive and accessible next generation sequencing method. Continued increases in the accuracy and throughput of ONT sequencing, along with improved genomic databases, suggests that a metagenomic approach for quantification of animal diets will become an important method in the future.

Celery spices are an important raw material in the production of food and cosmetic, including carveol, carvone and dihydrocarvone. In this study, a new Klebsiella sp. O852 was isolated, which was capable of converting limonene to trans-dihydrocarvone. The yields of trans-dihydrocarvone reached up to 1058 mg/L when the strain O852 was incubated using LB-M medium for 4 h at 36ºC and 150 rpm and the process was monitored for 36 h after adding 1680 mg/L limonene dissolved in ethanol. Limonene was used as a 20% (v/v) solution in the ethanol. Besides, the genome of Klebsiella sp. O852 comprised 20 contigs and 19 scaffolds. The genome size was 5.49 Mb. A total of 5218 protein-encoding genes were predicted, these genes mainly distributed in some metabolism and biosynthesis categories. Finally, several genes involved in trans-dihydrocarvone biosynthesis were further analyzed, identified and verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and exogenous expression. These novel genes may find value in the bioconversion of inexpensive raw materials to natural flavors and fragrances.

Metabolic stress and associated mitochondrial dysfunction are implicated in retinal degeneration irrespective of the underlying cause. We identified seven unique chemicals from a screen of the Chembridge DiverSET and tested their protection against calcium ionophore and IBMX-induced loss of mitochondrial capacity, as measured by viability and respirometry, in mouse retinal photoreceptor-derived 661W cells. Six of the agents (CB1, 2, 6, 10 11, 12) were protective. Cheminformatic analyses identified a unique pharmacophore with 6 physico-chemical features based on two of the compounds (CB11 and CB12). The protective efficacy of CB11 was further shown by a decrease in the loss of rod photoreceptor cells in retinal explants from two retinitis pigmentosa rodent models, the rd1 mouse and the S334ter-line-3 rat exposed to CB11 in the media. Using eye drops, CB11 biodistribution was confirmed in the retina of the pig eye. The same eye drops decreased photoreceptor cell loss in Balb/c mouse exposed to constant light, a model of age-related macular degeneration. Our studies have identified new chemicals that protect from mitochondrial damage and leads to improved mitochondrial function. Using ex vivo and in vivo models, CB11 decreased the loss of photoreceptor cells in murine models of retinal degeneration and may be effective in the treatment of a wide variety of retinal dystrophies.

Shared decision making (SDM) is a model of communication processes that facilitate cooperative decision making between a patient and medical practitioner regarding treatment. The use of assessment instruments is an important way to gain insight into the practice of SDM. In order to fully utilize the various assessment tools available for use, it is important to not only reveal what instruments are used to measure SDM but also shed light on which aspects of SDM are captured by different instruments. However, the instruments currently used to measure SDM are unclear, as are the aspects of SDM processes each instrument reflects. So that, we reviewed assessment instruments used in studies on SDM with the aim of clarifying what aspects of SDM processes each instrument was intended to capture in this study. As a result, we identified 16 assessment instruments used in 115 articles concerning SDM as the main theme. The most commonly used instrument was the OPTION scale, followed by SDM-Q-9. Step 4 (“informing on the benefits and risks of the options”) was covered by most instruments, followed by Step 5 (“investigation of the patient’s understanding and expectations”). In the future, assessment instruments for SDM will likely be used primarily in areas in which there is considerable uncertainty about evidence, and where multiple options exist. When you assess SDM, it is necessary to be able to select the evaluation indicator that suits the purpose.

Abstract Rationale aims and objectives Physiotherapy is recommended for cervicogenic headache (CGH) with 4% of headache patients currently referred to secondary care. The aim of this service evaluation was to explore knowledge of CGH signs and symptoms (SS) and headache red flags (HRF) among musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapists during a headache training session. This session was identified as a training need by the learning and development team following a previous headache training session. Post training, treatment choices and patient outcomes for 10 patients were explored as recommended by an Audit Committee. METHOD Nine physiotherapists undertook a 3-hour training session on headaches, completing an HRF/SS questionnaire focused on CGH, before and after training. Post training, 10 CGH patient were assessed and treated by participants. Treatment choices were compared with current best practice and patient outcomes were collected, using the Neck Pain Bournemouth questionnaire (NP BQ). Treatment data was gathered via an electronic patient record system between June 2016 and August 2017. Results Prior to training, participants achieved a correct answer frequency of 58% and 64% for HRF and SS respectively. Post training, this increased to 87% and 91% respectively. Post treatment, 70% of patients had an improvement of over 80% and 30% had an improvement of between 30% and 43%. In terms of modalities used, 40% of participants received acupuncture and 12% had manual therapy. Advice was given to 5.8% and 4.6% used exercises. Soft tissue massage and balance were used in 2.3% an 1.2% respectively. Conclusion Clear training needs were identified initially, and knowledge improved after training, together with evidence-based choices for treatments. All patient symptoms improved during care.

A 33-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for bowel obstruction secondary to fistulizing and stenosing Crohn's disease. A computerized tomography scan of abdomen showed a duplication of the inferior vena cava.

Objectives: Despite advances in the surgical treatment of parotid duct stenosis, it remains a surgical challenge. This study aimed to analyze the surgical outcomes of sialendoscopy combined with transoral sialodochoplasty for the treatment of patients with parotid duct stenosis with megaduct in parotid glands. Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: Academic tertiary medical center Participants: This study included 13 patients with chronic obstructive sialadenitis caused by type 2 parotid duct stenosis who underwent sialendoscopy with transoral sialodochoplasty. Main Outcomes and Measures: All patients completed a three-point Likert-type rating scale 3 months postoperatively. Radiologic evaluation using magnetic resonance (MR) sialography was performed to evaluate megaduct diameter. Thirteen glands underwent sialendoscopy combined with transoral sialodochoplasty. Results: At 3 months after surgery, six (46.2%) glands showed complete resolution, and seven (53.8%) showed partial resolution of obstructive symptoms. Megaduct diameter between pre- and postoperative MR sialography significantly decreased after transoral sialodochoplasty (8.05 ± 2.675 vs. 4.15 ± 2.400, P = 0.028). Saliva excretion was improved after the transoral sialodochoplasty, as the distal ducts were visualized with sialagogues postoperatively. Conclusions: Type 2 parotid duct stenosis can be successfully treated with sialendoscopy combined with sialodochoplasty. In cases of large megaduct, transoral sialodochoplasty appears to offer benefits of reducing the diameter of dilated megaducts and improving salivary outflow.

Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica rapa var. parachinensis) is a popular and widely cultivated leaf vegetable crop in Asia. Here, we performed a high quality de novo assembly of the 384 Mb genome of 10 chromosomes of a typical cultivar of Chinese flowering cabbage with an integrated approach using PacBio, Illumina, and Hi-C technology. We modeled 47,598 protein-coding genes in this analysis and annotated 52% (205.9/384) of its genome as repetitive sequences including 17% in DNA elements and 22% in long terminal retrotransposons (LTRs). Phylogenetic analysis reveals the genome of the Chinese flowering cabbage has a closer evolutionary relationship with the AA diploid progenitor of the allotetraploid species, Brassica juncea. Comparative genomic analysis of Brassica species with different subgenome types (A, B and C) reveals that the pericentromeric regions on chromosome 5 and 6 of the AA genome have been significantly expanded compared to the orthologous genomic regions in the BB and CC genomes, largely drive by LTR-retrotransposon amplification. This lineage-specific expansion may play a role in the species divergence in the Brassica genus. Furthermore, we found that a large amount of structural variations (SVs) identified within B. rapa lines that could impact coding genes, suggesting the functional significance of SVs on Brassica genome evolution. Overall, our high-quality genome assembly of the Chinese flowering cabbage provides a valuable genetic resource for deciphering the genome evolution of Brassica species and it can potentially serve as the reference genome guiding the molecular breeding practice of B. rapa crops.

Ru-based catalysts show high activity and stability to produce ammonia. Herein, the two-state reaction mechanism of Ru catalyzes N2 and H2 to synthesize NH3 are theoretical studied with the density functional theory(DFT)UB3LYP methods. The spin-orbital coupling constant(Hsoc) and intersystem crossing probability(Pisc) at minimum energy crossing point(MECP) were calculated, respectively. its are: Hsoc,MECP1=508.34cm-1，P2,MECP1ISC=0.85，MECP2：Hsoc,MECP2=269.21cm-1， P2,MECP2ISC=0.27. Used energy span model to determined TOF-determining transition state(TDTS) as 3TS2-3 and TOF-determining intermediate(TDI) as 3IM9 of reaction.In addition, the charge decomposition analysis(CDA), spin population analysis and frontier molecular orbital(FMO) theory were used to analyzed reaction mechanism.