Dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 Pathways Restores the Expression of Progesterone Receptor-B in Endometriotic Lesions through Epigenetic Mechanisms.

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent and progesterone-resistant gynecological inflammatory disease of reproductive-age women. Progesterone resistance, loss of progesterone receptor -B (PR-B) in the stromal cells of the endometrium, is one of the hallmarks of endometriosis and a major contributing factor for infertility in endometriosis patients. Loss of PR-B in the stromal cells of the endometriotic lesions poses resistance to the success of progesterone-based therapy. The working hypothesis is that PR-B is hypermethylated and epigenetically silenced, and inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways will decrease the hypermethylation, reverse the epigenetic silencing, and restore the expression of PR-B via DNA methylation and histone modification mechanisms in the endometriotic lesions. The objectives are to (i) determine the effects of dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways on the expression of PR-B and DNA methylation and histone modification protein machinery in the endometriotic lesions and (ii) identify the underlying epigenetic mechanisms of PR-B restoration in the endometriotic lesions. The results indicate that dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways decreases the hypermethylation, reverses the epigenetic silencing, and restores the expression of PR-B via DNA methylation and H3K9 and H3K27 methylation mechanisms in the endometriotic lesions or endometriotic stromal cells of human origin. These results support the novel concept that restored expression of PR-B in the endometriotic lesions and endometrium may improve the clinical outcome of progesterone therapy in endometriosis patients.

Laser-Printed Photoanode: Femtosecond Laser-Induced Crystalline Phase Transformation of WO3 Nanorods for Space-Efficient and Flexible Thin-Film Solar Water-Splitting Cells.

Despite its potential for clean hydrogen harvesting, photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting cells face challenges in commercialization, particularly related its harvesting performance and productivity at an industrial scale. Herein, a facile fabrication method of flexible thin-film photoanode for PEC water-splitting to overcome these limitations, based on laser processing technologies, is proposed. Laser-induced graphene, a carbon structure produced through direct laser writing carbonization (DLWC), plays a dual role: a flexible and stable current collector and a substrate for the hydrothermal synthesis of tungsten trioxide (WO3) nanorods (NRs). To facilitate water-splitting, a femtosecond-pulsed laser (fs laser) is focused on the WO3 NRs, converting their crystalline phase from pristine orthorhombic to monoclinic structure without thermal damage. With NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) catalyst, the flexible thin-film photoanode exhibits good PEC performance (1.46 mA cm-2 at 1.23 VRHE) and retains ≈90% of its performance after 3000 bending cycles. With its excellent mechanical properties, the flexible photoanode can be operated in various shapes with different curvatures, enabling space-efficient PEC water-splitting by loading larger photoanode within a given space. This study is expected to contribute to the advancement of large-scale solar water-splitting cells, introducing a new approach to enhance H2/O2 production and expand its application range.

Impact of e-cigarette vaping aerosol exposure in pregnancy on mTOR signaling in rat fetal hippocampus.

Electronic cigarette (e-cig) use during pregnancy has become a major health concern in recent years and many view them as less harmful and may help quit or reduce combustible cigarettes. Implementing a state-of-the-art engineered vaping system, comprising an atomizer similar to those sold in vape shops, we aimed to utilize a translational e-cig inhalation delivery method to provide crucial information on the impact of prenatal e-cig aerosols on the developing brain hippocampal mTOR system in a rat model system. Gestational e-cig vaping significantly increased P-mTOR levels (p < 0.05) in the rat fetal hippocampi in the nicotine group (comprising of VG/PG + nicotine) compared to the control and the juice (comprising of VG/PG) groups. Total mTOR expression was not different among groups. Immunofluorescence imaging demonstrated P-mTOR was detected exclusively in the granule cells of the dentate gyrus of the fetal hippocampus. E-cig did not alter DEPTOR, but RAPTOR and RICTOR were higher (p < 0.05) in the Nicotine group. Gestational e-cig vaping with nicotine increased (p < 0.05) the activity and expression of 4EBP1, p70S6K, but decreased (p < 0.05) P-PKCα in the fetal hippocampi. In summary, dysregulation of mTORC1 and the related mTORC2, their activity, and downstream proteins together may play a critical role in e-cig-vaping-induced neurobiological phenotypes during development.

Performance Evaluation of Two Kinds of Rapid Antigen Test Kits for Detection of COVID-19 Infection.

BACKGROUND: The diagnostic standard for COVID-19 infection is real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) of nasopharyngeal swab and oropharyngeal swab specimens. Rapid antigen tests are cheaper and easier to use than the rRT-PCR method. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is settling down, seasonal epi¬demic is expected. In this study, the performance of two rapid antigen test kits was evaluated based on rRT-PCR test results. METHODS: A total of 346 residual samples was tested by the PowerChek SARS-CoV-2 Real-time PCR Kit or STAN-DARD M nCoV Real-Time-Detection kit, STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag test kit (SQ RAT), and ND COVID-19 Ag test kit (ND RAT). RESULTS: Compared to rRT-PCR as the standard method, the SQ RAT test kit yielded 77.1% sensitivity (101/131) and 100% specificity (215/215), and the ND RAT yielded 89.3% sensitivity (117/131) and 100% specificity (215/ 215). Both RATs showed sensitivity greater than 85% in samples with RdRp gene Ct value less than 25. There was a false-negative case suspected of prozone phenomenon. CONCLUSIONS: Both RATs showed significant performance, but users should beware of the prozone phenomenon.

Health to Eat: A Smart Plate with Food Recognition, Classification, and Weight Measurement for Type-2 Diabetic Mellitus Patients' Nutrition Control.

The management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is generally not only focused on pharmacological therapy. Medical nutrition therapy is often forgotten by patients for several reasons, such as difficulty determining the right nutritional pattern for themselves, regulating their daily nutritional patterns, or even not heeding nutritional diet recommendations given by doctors. Management of nutritional therapy is one of the important efforts that can be made by diabetic patients to prevent an increase in the complexity of the disease. Setting a diet with proper nutrition will help patients manage a healthy diet. The development of Smart Plate Health to Eat is a technological innovation that helps patients and users know the type of food, weight, and nutrients contained in certain foods. This study involved 50 types of food with a total of 30,800 foods using the YOLOv5s algorithm, where the identification, measurement of weight, and nutrition of food were investigated using a Chenbo load cell weight sensor (1 kg), an HX711 weight weighing A/D module pressure sensor, and an IMX219-160 camera module (waveshare). The results of this study showed good identification accuracy in the analysis of four types of food: rice (58%), braised quail eggs in soy sauce (60%), spicy beef soup (62%), and dried radish (31%), with accuracy for weight and nutrition (100%).

Monocyte distribution width (MDW) as a useful indicator for early screening of sepsis and discriminating false positive blood cultures.

BACKGROUND: Severe sepsis and septic shock are the leading cause of in-hospital death. As sepsis progresses, expression and activity of endogenous mediators of inflammation change. Early detection of biomarkers can play a role in sepsis screening and in improvement of patient outcomes. Recent studies suggest that increase in monocyte volume may be helpful in early detection of sepsis. Therefore, we evaluated the utility of monocyte distribution width (MDW) for the early assessment of sepsis compared with the blood culture and other inflammatory biomarkers. METHODS: Medical records of 1,404 patients (aged ≥19 years) who were admitted to the emergency department owing to clinically suspected infectious disease and requested blood cultures from Oct 2019 to Jan 2021 were reviewed. The patients were grouped based on Sepsis-3 criteria. They had undergone other laboratory tests to evaluate their clinical status. MDW was analyzed using DxH900 hematology analyzer (Beckman Coulter, Brea, California, USA). To determine the diagnostic performance of MDW, C-reactive protein (CRP), and procalcitonin (PCT) for sepsis, the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristics curves and their sensitivity and specificity were measured. RESULTS: Among 1,404 patients, 520 patients were designated the sepsis group based on Sepsis-3 criteria. In the sepsis group, MDW value was 24.1 (median, IQR 21.6-28.1); AUC values for MDW, CRP, and PCT were 0.67 (95% CI, 0.64-0.69), 0.66 (95% CI, 0.63-0.68), and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.72-0.77), respectively. For diagnosis of the sepsis, the cut-off value of MDW was 21.7 (sensitivity 74% and specificity 54%). Measured values of MDW were higher for the blood culture positive group than that of the blood culture contamination group (P<0.001, 95% CI, -5.9 to -3.0) or blood culture negative group (P<0.001, 95% CI = -5.8 to -4.2). CONCLUSIONS: MDW is a new hematological parameter that is simultaneously calculated during complete blood cell counting by Beckman Coulter hematology analyzer. MDW is expected to serve as a useful indicator for early screening of sepsis in conjunction with CRP and PCT. MDW is especially useful for sepsis assessment in patients with a suspected infection. MDW can also assist in discriminating false positive blood cultures.

Simple Saliva Sample Collection for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Compared With Nasopharyngeal Swab Sample.

CONTEXT.­: The use of saliva samples for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection offers several advantages, including ease of sample collection, feasibility of self-collection, and minimization of medical staff exposure to infection. The emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants has had an impact on the viral load of specimens and the results of real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). OBJECTIVE.­: To compare nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 using rRT-PCR. DESIGN.­: In this study, participants were recruited prospectively, and paired nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples were collected simultaneously from each participant. After adding universal transport medium, RNA was extracted in an identical manner for both sample types, and samples were tested using rRT-PCR. In addition, samples with positive results were tested for SARS-CoV-2 variants. RESULTS.­: Of the 338 paired samples, 100 nasopharyngeal swab and 101 saliva samples tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The rRT-PCR results of the saliva and nasopharyngeal swab samples showed a positive percent agreement of 95.0% (95% CI, 88.7%-98.4%), a negative percent agreement of 97.9% (95% CI, 95.2%-99.3%), and an overall percent agreement of 96.8% (95% CI, 94.3%-98.4%). SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the saliva samples of 6 participants with negative nasopharyngeal sample results. In addition, the sensitivity of saliva samples was similar to that of nasopharyngeal samples for detecting various SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Omicron variant. CONCLUSIONS.­: Saliva samples can be used as an alternative to nasopharyngeal samples for convenient and effective detection of various SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Effects of selective inhibition of prostaglandin E2 receptors EP2 and EP4 on the miRNA profile in endometriosis.

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent, progesterone-resistant, chronic inflammatory gynecological disease of reproductive-age women. Two major clinical symptoms of endometriosis are chronic pelvic pain and infertility, which profoundly affect the quality of life in women. Current hormonal therapies to induce a hypoestrogenic state are unsuccessful because of undesirable side effects, reproductive health concerns, and failure to prevent disease recurrence. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) plays an important role in the survival and growth of endometriotic lesions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that control gene expressions through multiple mechanisms and have important roles in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. The objective of the present study is to determine the effects of pharmacological inhibition of PGE2 receptors, EP2 and EP4, on miRNA profile in endometriosis. The novel results collectively indicate that inhibition of PGE2-EP2/EP4 signaling regulated several miRNA clusters associated with cell adhesion, migration, invasion, survival and growth in cell-specific and the chromosome-specific manner and reverses the epigenetic silencing of proapoptotic miRNAs 15a and 34c in the human endometriotic epithelial and stromal cells and experimental endometriotic lesions. Thus, selective inhibition of EP2/EP4 receptors could emerge as a potential nonsteroidal therapy for endometriosis.

Usefulness of monocyte distribution width and presepsin for early assessment of disease severity in COVID-19 patients.

Early predictors of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would identify patients requiring intensive care. Recently, the monocyte distribution width (MDW) and presepsin level have been used for the early diagnosis of sepsis. Here, we assessed the utility of MDW and presepsin for the early assessment of COVID-19 severity. Eighty-seven inpatients with confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled and divided into 3 groups by the type of respiratory support: (1) mechanical ventilation or high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy (MVHF-OT), (2) conventional oxygen therapy, and (3) no oxygen therapy. We measured the complete blood count; MDW; erythrocyte sedimentation rate; and the levels of presepsin, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, lactate dehydrogenase, ferritin, Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) neutralizing antibody. Thirteen (14.9%) patients on MVHF-OT exhibited a significantly higher mortality and a longer hospital stay than did the others. The MDW and presepsin levels were significantly elevated on admission, and correlated with COVID-19 severity (both P < .001). Notably, only the MDW correlated significantly with symptoms in the no oxygen therapy group (P < .012). In the first week after admission, the MDW fell and no longer differed among the groups. The KL-6 level did not differ by disease severity at any time. Neutralizing antibodies were detected in 74 patients (91.4%) and the level of neutralization correlated significantly with COVID-19 severity (P < .001). The MDW and presepsin are useful indicators for early assessment of disease severity in COVID-19 patients.

Fabrication of High-Performance Solar Cells and X-ray Detectors Using MoX2@CNT Nanocomposite-Tuned Perovskite Layers.

The interface design of inorganic and organic halide perovskite-based devices plays an important role to attain high performance. The modification of transport layers (ETL and HTL) or the perovskite layer is given the crucial inspiration to realize superior power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). The highly conducting 2D materials of CNT, graphene/GO, and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are suitable substitutes to tune the electronic structure/work function of perovskite devices. Herein, the nanocomposites composed of molybdenum dichalcogenides (MoX2 = MoS2, MoSe2, and MoTe2) stretched CNT was embedded with HTL or perovskite layer to improve the resulted characteristics of perovskite devices of solar cells and X-ray detectors. A superior solar cell efficiency of 12.57% was realized for the MoTe2@CNT nanocomposites using a modified active layer-composed device. Additionally, X-ray detectors with MoTe2@CNT-modulated active layers achieved 13.32 µA/cm2, 3.99 mA/Gy·cm2, 4.81 × 10-4 cm2/V·s, and 2.13 × 1015 cm2/V·s of CCD-DCD, sensitivity, mobility, and trap density, respectively. Density functional theory approximation was used to realize the improved electronics properties, optical properties, and energy band structures in the MoX2@CNT-doped perovskites evidently. Thus, the current research paves the way for the improvement of highly efficient semiconductor devices based on perovskite-based structures with the use of 2D nanocomposites.

Impact of Chamber/Annealing Temperature on the Endurance Characteristic of Zr:HfO2 Ferroelectric Capacitor.

The endurance characteristic of Zr-doped HfO2 (HZO)-based metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitors fabricated under various deposition/annealing temperatures in the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process was investigated. The chamber temperature in the ALD process was set to 120 °C, 200 °C, or 250 °C, and the annealing temperature was set to 400 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C, or 700 °C. For the given annealing temperature of 700 °C, the remnant polarization (2Pr) was 17.21 µC/cm2, 26.37 µC/cm2, and 31.8 µC/cm2 at the chamber temperatures of 120 °C, 200 °C, and 250 °C, respectively. For the given/identical annealing temperature, the largest remnant polarization (Pr) was achieved when using the chamber temperature of 250 °C. At a higher annealing temperature, the grain size in the HZO layer becomes smaller, and thereby, it enables to boost up Pr. It was observed that the endurance characteristics for the capacitors fabricated under various annealing/chamber temperatures were quite different. The different endurance characteristics are due to the oxygen and oxygen vacancies in ferroelectric films, which affects the wakeup/fatigue behaviors. However, in common, all the capacitors showed no breakdown for an externally applied pulse (up to 108 cycles of the pulse).

Interaction of alcohol & phosphatidic acid in maternal rat uterine artery function.

Alcohol has been demonstrated to impair maternal uterine arterial adaptations in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) animal models. However, the exact mechanism remains inconclusive. We hypothesized that phosphatidic acid (PA), a direct target of alcohol metabolism, would alleviate alcohol-induced vascular dysfunction of the maternal uterine artery. Mean fetal weight, and crown-rump length of the alcohol administered rats were ~9 % and 7.6 % lower than the pair-fed control pups, respectively. Acetylcholine (Ach)-induced uterine artery relaxation was significantly impaired in uterine arteries of alcohol-administered rats (P < 0.05). Supplementation of 10-5 M PA reversed alcohol-induced vasodilatory deficit; no difference was detected after PA treatment between pair-fed control and alcohol groups (P = 0.37). There was a significant interaction between PA concentrations and alcohol exposure (PA X Alcohol effect, P < 0.0001). Pair-wise comparisons showed a concentration-dependent vasodilatory effect on uterine arteries of the alcohol-administered rats, with % relaxation significantly improved at PA concentrations > 10-7 M (P < 0.05). Alcohol significantly reduced vasodilatory P-Ser1177 endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) levels in the uterine artery (↓90.7 %; P = 0.0029). PA treatment significantly reversed P-Ser1177 eNOS level in alcohol uterine arteries (153.7 %↑; P = 0.005); following ex vivo PA, there was no difference in P-Ser1177 eNOS levels between Control and Alcohol. Neither alcohol treatment nor PA affected total eNOS levels. Our data provide the first evidence of the interaction of alcohol and PA in rat maternal uterine artery vascular function and demonstrates PA's relationship with the eNOS system. Overall, the current study demonstrates that PA may be a promising therapeutic molecule of interest in alcohol-related gestational vascular dysfunction.

Sensitivity improvement of hybrid active layer containing 2D nanoplatelets for indirect x-ray detector.

In this paper, we attempted to improve the detection sensitivity of an indirect x-ray detector through using a hybrid active layer composed of a poly [N-90-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(40,70-di-2-thienyl-20,10,30-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) organic semiconductor and cadmium selenide nanoplatelets (CdSe NPLs) colloidal inorganic semiconductors. First, different blending ratio in the active layer (i.e. 2:1, 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3) of PCDTBT:CdSe NPL were examined, a sensitivity of 89.5µC·Gyair-1·cm-2was achieved using a 1:1 ratio due to the low series resistance (RS) and defect density in this configuration. Then, the oleic acid (OA) that was initially applied in the CdSe NPL surface was replaced with pyridine ligands, this was done because the pyridine ligand is a short-chain ligand that can help charge transfer by reducing the distance between NPLs in the active layer. In addition, an experiment was conducted to determine the optimal ligand exchange time. A detector with an PCDTBT:CdSe NPL active layer fabricated using pyridine ligand exchange achieved a sensitivity of 219.8µC·Gyair-1·cm-2after an exchange time of 12 h, this is an improvement of 155% compared to the detector using a PCDTBT:CdSe NPL with the original OA ligands. Lastly, the optimal thickness for the PCDTBT:CdSe NPL active layer was investigated. The highest mobility of 7.60 × 10- 6cm2/V·s was recorded after fabricating the layer using spin-coating at 1900 rpm, the highest sensitivity of 314.0µC·Gyair-1·cm-2was also achieved under these conditions. Compared to the initial state of the detector, our modifications improved the sensitivity of the PCDTBT:CdSe NPL detector by 251%.

Nutrition Management Through Nitrogen Balance Analysis in Patient With Short Bowel Syndrome.

Patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS) have a high risk of developing parenteral nutrition (PN)-associated complications. Therefore, diet or enteral nutrition and PN should be modified to limit such complications. N balance analysis is a method of calculating the amount of protein required to achieve N equilibrium in the body based on intake and excretion. It is important to reduce dependence on PN and achieve the recommended range of N balance 2-4 g with an appropriate diet. We report a recent experience with nutrition modification using N balance analysis and suggest it as a useful method to reduce dependence on PN in nutrition management of SBS patients and in continuing active intestinal rehabilitation.

Frequency histograms of three high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays in a reference population.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac troponin (cTn) values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit (URL) indicate myocardial injury. We established 99th percentile URLs for three high-sensitivity cTn (hs-cTn) assays (Beckman Coulter Access hs-cTnI, Abbott STAT hs-cTnI, and Roche Elecsys hs-cTnT) using a healthy population in Korea. METHODS: Each cTn value was measured by three assays and analyzed by dividing by gender and age. RESULTS: The frequency histograms of log-transformed cTn values for Beckman and Abbott assays exhibited a bell-shaped distribution. The 99th percentile URLs were 9.8, 17.4, and 17.3 ng/L in the total population; 10.9/9.0, 18.9/17.0, and 18.9/17.7 ng/L in the male/female population (p < 0.001 for all three assays); and 11.2/7.2, 19.9/14.5, and 22.7/9.3 ng/L in the older/younger population (p < 0.001 for all three assays) for Beckman, Abbott, and Roche assays, respectively. CONCLUSION: Among the three assays, bell-shaped distributions were observed in a frequency histogram of log-transformed cTn values for healthy population in Beckman and Abbott assays. Also, our findings show that the 99th percentile URLs for cTn levels vary not only by gender but age.

Comparison of ACCEL ELISA COVID-19 with Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 for Screening of COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: Although real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) is the gold standard for diagnosing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), simpler and faster antibody detection tests can be complementary for diagnosis of COVID-19. To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for serologic testing has increased. In this report, the newly developed antibody detection assays ACCEL ELISA COVID-19 (ACCEL) and Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 (Elecsys) were evaluated. METHODS: Serum samples submitted for routine laboratory testing were analyzed (66 and 161 PCR-positive and PCR-negative samples). After the samples were aliquoted, antibody detection tests were performed using ACCEL and Elecsys assays. RESULTS: When detection of viral RNA using RT-PCR was set as the reference method for diagnosis of COVID-19, the sensitivity was 83.3% and 75.8, and the specificity was 96.9 and 99.4% in ACCEL and Elecsys, respectively. The true positivity rates of ACCEL and Elecsys assays were 57.1%/42.9%, 57.1%/28.6%, 77.8%/66.7%, and 97.1%/97.1% among the specimens collected ≤3, 4-7, 8-14, and >14 days after symptom onset, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The ACCEL assay showed high sensitivity in samples collected within 7 days after symptom onset. Because many patients are asymptomatic in the early stage of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the ACCEL assay could be a good screening tool due to high sensitivity in the early stage of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Impact of E-cig aerosol vaping on fetal and neonatal respiratory development and function.

Electronic cigarette (e-cig) use has increased over the past decade, and exposure to e-cig aerosols during pregnancy raises concern for maternal and fetal health. The developing fetal lung is known to be sensitive to prenatal tobacco product exposure. Utilizing a 3-pronged approach, we examined the effects of prenatal e-cig aerosols with, and without nicotine on respiratory development in a murine model. RNAseq analysis of fetal lungs revealed extensive dysregulation in gene expression. Morphologic assessment of distal airspaces in neonatal lungs display an emphysematic phenotype. Respiratory mechanics of neonates display signs of increased respiratory workload, with increased resistance and decreased compliance. These data are novel and provide evidence that prenatal e-cig exposure may result in altered lung function or development of disease.

Characteristics of the Colorless Polyimide-Based Flexible X-ray Detector with Non-Fullerene Acceptor Polymer.

In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of the colorless polyimide (CPI) film-based flexible organic X-ray detector. The CPI film can be applied to various applications, because it shows excellent visible light transmittance by removing the yellow color of polyimide (PI) film, which has the advantage of physical and chemical stability. In addition, the deformation curvature of the CPI substrate according to temperature showed similar characteristics to that of the glass substrate. For the organic active layer of the proposed detector, PBDB-T was fixed as a donor, and PC71BM and ITIC were used as acceptors. To evaluate the mechanical stability of the flexible detector, the degradation sensitivity was measured as bending curvature and bending cycle. The sensitivity of the detector with ITIC acceptor showed a 46.82% higher result than PC71BM acceptor on bending curvature (R = 10); and at the same curvature, when the bending cycle was 500 times, a 135.85% higher result than PC71BM acceptor.

Effects of nutrition and gestational alcohol consumption on fetal growth and development.

Fetal alcohol exposure can lead to a range of developmental disorders, including impaired fetal growth and development of multiple organ systems. These disorders are grouped under the term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Adequate nutrition and a conducive intrauterine environment are essential for healthy fetal development. Nutrient deficiencies resulting from inadequate maternal nutrient ingestion may be compounded by alcohol-induced altered nutrient metabolism, placental clearance, and malabsorption. Alcohol-induced alteration of the intrauterine environment is the main source of developmental deficits and nutritional insufficiencies can worsen the effects on fetal development. In this review, we discuss studies examining the collective and interactive effects of nutrition (specifically iron, selenium, vitamin A, thiamine, zinc, folate, vitamin B12, choline, and amino acids) relative to gestational alcohol consumption and its effects on fetal growth and development. We also summarize scientific reports that tested potential benefits of micronutrient supplementation in animal models of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and in humans. In summary, the deleterious effects of alcohol exposure in relation to nutrient homeostasis further validate that avoidance of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the most effective way to mitigate the teratogenic effects of alcohol.

Effects of dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways on endometrial pro-inflammatory, hormonal, and epigenetic microenvironment in endometriosis.

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent and progesterone-resistant gynecological inflammatory disease of reproductive-age women. The prevalence of endometriosis is ~5-10% in reproductive-age women, increasing to 20-30% in women with subfertility. The current anti-estrogen therapies can be prescribed only for a short time because of the undesirable side effects on menstruation, pregnancy, bone health, and failure to prevent a recurrence. The causes of endometriosis-associated infertility are multifactorial and poorly understood. The objective of the present study was to determine the inhibitory effects of AKT and/or ERK1/2 pathways on the microenvironment of the endometrium in a xenograft mouse model of endometriosis of human origin. Results indicate that dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways, but not inhibition of either AKT or ERK1/2 pathway, suppresses the growth of the endometriotic lesions in vivo. Dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways suppresses the production of proinflammatory cytokines, decreases E2 biosynthesis and signaling, and restores progesterone receptor-B signaling components in the epithelial and stromal cells of the endometrium in a cell-specific manner. These results together suggest that dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways suppresses the estrogen-dominant state and concomitantly increases the progesterone-responsive state of the endometrium. Therefore, dual inhibition of AKT and ERK1/2 pathways could emerge as long-term nonsteroidal therapy for endometriosis.