Effects of exogenous melatonin supplementation on health outcomes: An umbrella review of meta-analyses based on randomized controlled trials.

Various melatonin supplementations have been developed to improve health outcomes in various clinical conditions. Thus, we sought to evaluate and summarize the effect of melatonin treatments in clinical settings for health outcomes. We searched PubMed/Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library from inception to 4 February 2021. We included meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials investigating the melatonin intervention for any health outcome. Based on the different effect sizes of each meta-analysis, we calculated random models' standardized mean differences or risk ratios. We observed robust evidence supported by statistical significance with non-considerable heterogeneity between studies for sleep-related problems, cancer, surgical patients, and pregnant women. Patients with sleep disorder, sleep onset latency (SMD 0.33, 95% CI: 0.10 - 0.56, P < 0.01) were significantly improved whereas no clear evidence was shown with sleep efficiency (1.10, 95% CI: -0.26 to 2.45). The first analgesic requirement time (SMD 5.81, 95% CI: 2.57-9.05, P < 0.001) of surgical patients was distinctly improved. Female patients under artificial reproductive technologies had significant increase in the top-quality embryos (SMD 0.53, 95% CI: 0.27 - 0.79, P < 0.001), but no statistically clear evidence was found in the live birth rate (SMD 1.20, 95% CI: 0.83 - 1.72). Survival at one year (RR 1.90, 95% CI: 1.28 - 2.83, P < 0.005) significantly increased with cancer patients. Research on melatonin interventions to treat clinical symptoms and sleep problems among diverse health conditions was identified and provided considerable evidence. Future well-designed randomized clinical trials of high quality and subgroup quantitative analyses are essential.

Automated Classification of Normal Control and Early-Stage Dementia Based on Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Data Acquired from Smart Home Environment.

With the global trend toward an aging population, the increasing number of dementia patients and elderly living alone has emerged as a serious social issue in South Korea. The assessment of activities of daily living (ADL) is essential for diagnosing dementia. However, since the assessment is based on the ADL questionnaire, it relies on subjective judgment and lacks objectivity. Seven healthy seniors and six with early-stage dementia participated in the study to obtain ADL data. The derived ADL features were generated by smart home sensors. Statistical methods and machine learning techniques were employed to develop a model for auto-classifying the normal controls and early-stage dementia patients. The proposed approach verified the developed model as an objective ADL evaluation tool for the diagnosis of dementia. A random forest algorithm was used to compare a personalized model and a non-personalized model. The comparison result verified that the accuracy (91.20%) of the personalized model was higher than that (84.54%) of the non-personalized model. This indicates that the cognitive ability-based personalization showed encouraging performance in the classification of normal control and early-stage dementia and it is expected that the findings of this study will serve as important basic data for the objective diagnosis of dementia.

Medical Health Records-Based Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) Prediction for Effective Dementia Care.

Dementia is a cognitive impairment that poses a global threat. Current dementia treatments slow the progression of the disease. The timing of starting such treatment markedly affects the effectiveness of the treatment. Some experts mentioned that the optimal timing for starting the currently available treatment in order to delay progression to dementia is the mild cognitive impairment stage, which is the prior stage of dementia. However, medical records are typically only available at a later stage, i.e., from the early or middle stage of dementia. In order to address this limitation, this study developed a model using national health information data from 5 years prior, to predict dementia development 5 years in the future. The Senior Cohort Database, comprising 550,000 samples, were used for model development. The F-measure of the model predicting dementia development after a 5-year incubation period was 77.38%. Models for a 1- and 3-year incubation period were also developed for comparative analysis of dementia risk factors. The three models had some risk factors in common, but also had unique risk factors, depending on the stage. For the common risk factors, a difference in disease severity was confirmed. These findings indicate that the diagnostic criteria and treatment strategy for dementia should differ depending on the timing. Furthermore, since the results of this study present new dementia risk factors that have not been reported previously, this study may also contribute to identification of new dementia risk factors.

Comparison of the impact of propofol versus sevoflurane on early postoperative recovery in living donors after laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: a prospective randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Enhancing postoperative recovery of the donor is important to encourage living kidney donation. We investigated the effects of anesthetic agents (intravenous [IV] propofol versus inhaled [IH] sevoflurane) on the quality of early recovery of healthy living kidney donors after hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy (HALN) under analgesic intrathecal morphine injection. METHODS: This single-center, prospective randomized controlled study enrolled 80 living donors undergoing HALN from October 2019 to June 2020 at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital. Donors were randomly assigned to the IV propofol group or IH sevoflurane group. To measure the quality of recovery, we used the Korean version of the Quality of Recovery-40 questionnaire (QoR-40 K) on postoperative day (POD) 1, and ambulation (success rate, number of footsteps) 6-12 h after surgery and on POD 1. The pain score for the wound site, IV opioid requirement, postoperative complications including incidences of nausea/vomiting, and length of in-hospital stay were also assessed. RESULTS: The global QoR-40 K score and all subscale scores (physical comfort, emotional state, physical independence, psychological support, and pain) were significantly higher in the IV propofol group than in the IH sevoflurane group. The numbers of footsteps at all time points were also higher in the IV propofol group. Donors in the IV propofol group had a lower incidence of nausea/vomiting, and a shorter hospitalization period. CONCLUSIONS: Total IV anesthesia with propofol led to better early postoperative recovery than that associated with IH sevoflurane. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Research Information Service, Republic of Korea (approval number: KCT0004351 ) on October 18, 2019.

Amalric triangular sign in a case of central retinal artery occlusion combined with posterior ciliary artery occlusion - Case report.

PURPOSE: Amalric triangular sign is a rare phenomenon indicating choroidal ischemia. In this study, we reported a typical Amalric triangular sign in a case of central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) combined with posterior ciliary artery (PCA) occlusion. OBSERVATIONS: A 49-year-old women developed sudden visual loss in her left eye for one day. Ocular examination revealed rubeosis iridis, macular retinal edema followed by multiple whitish triangular patches in the peripheral four days later. Fluorescein angiography (FAG) revealed delayed choroidal filling time, delayed arteriovenous transit time, choroidal non-perfusion areas and triangular lesions of hyperfluorescent corresponding to the hypopigmented patches on the fundus. Carotid Doppler and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) then disclosed 90% stenosis of left internal carotid artery (ICA), causing ischemia of the central retinal artery and posterior ciliary artery. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPORTANCE: The Amalric triangular sign indicates the occlusion on the main truck of PCA. The sign might combine with CRAO or branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO) as presented in our case and therefore is a strong indication of possible systemic vascular risk.

Work-function-tuned reduced graphene oxide via direct surface functionalization as source/drain electrodes in bottom-contact organic transistors.

RGO electrodes with work functions that can be widely tuned using direct surface functionalization are demonstrated by self-assembled monolayers anchored onto the surfaces of the RGO electrodes, which can remarkably enhance the device performance of organic field-effect transistors.

Detecting specific saccharides via a single indicator.

An improved synthesis of a rhodamine boronic acid indicator is reported. This compound is used in an optimized data collection protocol for wavelength- and time-dependent selectivity of sugars such as fructose and ribose derivatives. One indicator is thus used to selectively distinguish structurally related sugar analytes.

Different Patterns of Emotional Eating and Visuospatial Deficits Whereas Shared Risk Factors Related with Social Support between Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: Although it is thought that eating disorders result from the interplay of personal and sociocultural factors, a comprehensive model of eating disorders remains to be established. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which the childhood factors and deficit in visuoperceptual ability contribute to eating disorders. METHODS: A total of 76 participants - 22 women with anorexia nervosa (AN), 28 women with bulimia nervosa (BN), and 26 healthy women of comparable age, IQ, and years of education - were examined. Neuropsychological tasks were applied to measure the visuoperceptual deficits, viz. the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test and the group embedded figures test (GEFT). A questionnaire designed to obtain retrospective assessments of the childhood risk factors was administered to the participants. RESULTS: The women with both AN and BN were less likely to report having supportive figures in their childhood and poor copy accuracy in the Rey-Osterrieth test. The women with AN were more likely to report premorbid anxiety, childhood emotional undereating and showed poor performances in the GEFT. In the final model, the factors independently contributing to the case status were less social support in childhood as a common factor for both AN and BN, and childhood emotional undereating and poor ability in the low-level visuospatial processing for AN. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest the disturbance in the food-emotion relationship and the deficit in low-level visuospatial processing in people with AN. Lower social support appears to contribute to an increase in vulnerability to both AN and BN.

Surface-directed molecular assembly of pentacene on monolayer graphene for high-performance organic transistors.

Organic electronic devices that use graphene electrodes have received considerable attention because graphene is regarded as an ideal candidate electrode material. Transfer and lithographic processes during fabrication of patterned graphene electrodes typically leave polymer residues on the graphene surfaces. However, the impact of these residues on the organic semiconductor growth mechanism on graphene surface has not been reported yet. Here, we demonstrate that polymer residues remaining on graphene surfaces induce a stand-up orientation of pentacene, thereby controlling pentacene growth such that the molecular assembly is optimal for charge transport. Thus, pentacene field-effect transistors (FETs) using source/drain monolayer graphene electrodes with polymer residues show a high field-effect mobility of 1.2 cm(2)/V s. In contrast, epitaxial growth of pentacene having molecular assembly of lying-down structure is facilitated by π-π interaction between pentacene and the clean graphene electrode without polymer residues, which adversely affects lateral charge transport at the interface between electrode and channel. Our studies provide that the obtained high field-effect mobility in pentacene FETs using monolayer graphene electrodes arises from the extrinsic effects of polymer residues as well as the intrinsic characteristics of the highly conductive, ultrathin two-dimensional monolayer graphene electrodes.

Progress Towards Simple and Direct Detection of Adenylosuccinate Lyase Deficiency in Human Urine.

A rhodamine based boronic acid linearly responds to increasing 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside (AICAr) concentrations in human urine. This method is thus an advance in detecting adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL) deficiency as AICAr is a model riboside for the ADSL substrates succinyladenosine (S-Ado) and succinylaminoimidazolecarboxamide riboside (SAICAr). ADSL deficiency is a rare but devastating disease of de novo purine synthesis in infants. Its diagnosis is also significant as it is one of the autism spectrum disorders.

Selective fluorescence detection of cysteine and N-terminal cysteine peptide residues.

A new fluorogenic fluorescein derivative containing an alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde moiety produces a selective fluorescent signal enhancement in the presence of cysteine or peptides containing N-terminal cysteine residues. The mechanism is based on synergistic covalent and supramolecular interactions.

Homocystamides promote free-radical and oxidative damage to proteins.

Elevated levels of homocysteine are associated with several major diseases. However, it is not clear whether homocysteine is a marker or a causative agent. The majority (ca. 80%) of the homocysteine present in humans is protein bound. The study of the posttranslational modification of proteins by homocysteine and its cyclic congener, homocysteine thiolactone, is emerging as an area of great current interest for unraveling the ongoing "mediator/marker controversy" [Jacobsen DW (2009) Clin Chem 55:1-2]. Interestingly, many of the pathologies associated with homocysteine are also linked to oxidative stress. In the current study, chemical evidence for a causal relationship between homocysteine-bound proteins and oxidative damage is presented. For example, a reproducible increase in protein carbonyl functionality occurs as a consequence of the reaction of human serum albumin with homocysteine thiolactone. This occurs at physiological temperature upon exposure to air without any added oxidants or free-radical initiators. Alpha-amino acid carbon-centered radicals, well-known precursors of protein carbonyls, are shown to form via a hydrogen atom transfer process involving thiolactone-derived homocystamides. Model peptides in buffer as well as native proteins in human blood plasma additionally exhibit properties in keeping with the homocystamide-facilitated hydrogen atom transfer and resultant carbon-centered radicals.

NIR dyes for bioimaging applications.

Fluorescent dyes based on small organic molecules that function in the near infrared (NIR) region are of great current interest in chemical biology. They allow for imaging with minimal autofluorescence from biological samples, reduced light scattering, and high tissue penetration. Herein, examples of ongoing NIR fluorophore design strategies as well as their properties and anticipated applications relevant to the bioimaging are presented.

An Association Study of the A218C Polymorphism of the Tryptophan Hydroxylase 1 Gene with Eating Disorders in a Korean Population: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between the tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) gene and eating disorders focusing on obsessionality. METHODS: The sample included 62 women with a lifetime diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN) as well as 50 women with a lifetime diagnosis of bulimia nervosa (BN) recruited from specialist clinics for eating disorders and 131 healthy women in Korea. Blood samples were collected from all participants for the TPH1 genotyping. The patients were ad ministered the Korean version of the Eating Disorders Examination and obsessionality was conceptualized using measures of persistence, harm avoidance, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. RESULTS: In the case-control comparisons, the frequency of the A/A genotype was increased in the patients with BN, but this difference was not significant after correcting for multiple testing. We found no effect of the TPH A218C polymorphism on obsessionality in the patients with AN or BN. CONCLUSION: Although the present findings should be regarded as preliminary because of the small size of our sample, they suggest that the TPH1 gene may contribute to the genetic susceptibility to BN and be associated with the other unexplored traits of bulimic case status.