Immune and behavioral correlates of protection against symptomatic post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Introduction: We sought to determine pre-infection correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 post-vaccine inzfections (PVI) acquired during the first Omicron wave in the United States. Methods: Serum and saliva samples from 176 vaccinated adults were collected from October to December of 2021, immediately before the Omicron wave, and assessed for SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specific IgG and IgA binding antibodies (bAb). Sera were also assessed for bAb using commercial assays, and for neutralization activity against several SARS-CoV-2 variants. PVI duration and severity, as well as risk and precautionary behaviors, were assessed by questionnaires. Results: Serum anti-Spike IgG levels assessed by research assay, neutralization titers against Omicron subvariants, and low home risk scores correlated with protection against PVIs after multivariable regression analysis. Commercial assays did not perform as well as research assay, likely due to their lower dynamic range. Discussion: In the 32 participants that developed PVI, anti-Spike IgG bAbs correlated with lower disease severity and shorter duration of illness.

Recent Advances in Catalytic Systems for the Reduction of Aromatic and Aliphatic Nitrile Compounds to Amines.

Amines are important and valuable compounds widely used in the chemical industry to produce various products such as dyes, detergents, solvents, additives, pharmaceutical products, and anti-foam agents. A property that distinguishes primary amines from other compounds is their straightforward functionalization. Therefore, the synthesis of different amine compounds has been considered by many researchers in recent years. Usually, primary amines are produced via amination of alcohols, reductive amination, and reduction of nitro and amide compounds. Furthermore, a useful and atom-economical method for producing primary amines is reducing nitrile compounds using catalytic systems. Traditionally, nitriles are reduced using metal hydrides such as LiAlH4 or NaBH4. These methods have important restrictions in terms of selectivity and waste generation. Hence, the heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts were investigated for the hydrogenation of nitriles to diverse amines. This review describes the performance of different catalytic systems for reducing nitrile compounds to their corresponding amines.

Humoral and cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 post-vaccination in immunocompetent and immunocompromised cancer populations.

Cancer patients are at risk for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes due to impaired immune responses. However, the immunogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination is inadequately characterized in this population. We hypothesized that cancer vs non-cancer individuals would mount less robust humoral and/or cellular vaccine-induced immune SARS-CoV-2 responses. Receptor binding domain (RBD) and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody levels and T-cell responses were assessed in immunocompetent individuals with no underlying disorders (n = 479) and immunocompromised individuals (n = 115). All 594 individuals were vaccinated and of varying COVID-19 statuses (i.e., not known to have been infected, previously infected, or "Long-COVID"). Among immunocompromised individuals, 59% (n = 68) had an underlying hematologic malignancy; of those, 46% (n = 31) of individuals received cancer treatment <30 days prior to study blood collection. Ninety-eight percentage (n = 469) of immunocompetent and 81% (n = 93) of immunocompromised individuals had elevated RBD antibody titers (>1,000 U/mL), and of these, 60% (n = 281) and 44% (n = 41), respectively, also had elevated T-cell responses. Composite T-cell responses were higher in individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 or those diagnosed with Long-COVID compared to uninfected individuals. T-cell responses varied between immunocompetent vs carcinoma (n = 12) cohorts (P < 0.01) but not in immunocompetent vs hematologic malignancy cohorts. Most SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated individuals mounted robust cellular and/or humoral responses, though higher immunogenicity was observed among the immunocompetent compared to cancer populations. The study suggests B-cell targeted therapies suppress antibody responses, but not T-cell responses, to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Thus, vaccination continues to be an effective way to induce humoral and cellular immune responses as a likely key preventive measure against infection and/or subsequent more severe adverse outcomes. IMPORTANCE: The study was prompted by a desire to better assess the immune status of patients among our cancer host cohort, one of the largest in the New York metropolitan region. Hackensack Meridian Health is the largest healthcare system in New Jersey and cared for more than 75,000 coronavirus disease 2019 patients in its hospitals. The John Theurer Cancer Center sees more than 35,000 new cancer patients a year and performs more than 500 hematopoietic stem cell transplants. As a result, the work was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of vaccination in inducing humoral and cellular responses within this demographic.

Gαq Signaling Activates ß-Catenin-Dependent Gene Transcription

Background: The canonical Wnt signal transduction or the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway plays a crucial role in both carcinogenesis and development of animals. Activation of the Gαq class of Gα proteins positively regulates Wnt/ß-catenin pathway, and expression of Gαq in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293T) cells or Xenopus oocytes leads to the inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta and cellular accumulation of ß-catenin. This study investigated whether Gαq-mediated cellular accumulation of ß-catenin could affect the transcriptional activity of this protein. Methods: HEK-293T and HT-29 cells were used for cell culture and transfection. Protein localization and quantification were assessed by using immunofluorescence microscopy, cell fractionation assay, and Western blotting analysis. Gene expression at the transcription level was examined by quantitative reverse transcriptase/real-time PCR method. Results: Transcription of two cellular ß-catenin target genes (c-MYC and CCND1) and the ß-catenin/ T-cell factor reporter luciferase gene (TopFlash plasmid) significantly increased by Gαq activation. The Gαq-mediated increase in the expression level of the ß-catenin-target genes was sensitive to the expression of a minigene encoding a specific Gαq blocking peptide. The results of cell fractionation and Western blotting experiments showed that activation of Gαq signaling increased the intracellular ß-catenin protein level, but it blocked its membrane localization. Conclusion: Our results reveal that the Gαq-dependent cellular accumulation of ß-catenin can enhance ß-catenin transcriptional activity.

Optimizing testing strategies for early detection of disease outbreaks in animal trade networks via MCMC.

The animal trades between farms and other livestock holdings form a complex livestock trade network. The movement of animals between trade actors plays an important role in the spread of infectious diseases among premises. Particularly, the outbreak of silent diseases that have no clinically obvious symptoms in the animal trade system should be diagnosed by taking special tests. In practice, the authorities regularly conduct examinations on a random number of farms to make sure that there was no outbreak in the system. However, these actions, which aim to discover and block a disease cascade, are yet far from the effective and optimum solution and often fail to prevent epidemics. A testing strategy is defined as making decisions about distributing the fixed testing budget N between farms/nodes in the network. In this paper, first, we apply different heuristics for selecting sentinel farms on real and synthetic pig-trade networks and evaluate them by simulating disease spreading via the SI epidemic model. Later, we propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based testing strategy with the aim of early detection of outbreaks. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reasonably well decrease the size of the outbreak on both the realistic synthetic and real trade data. A targeted selection of an N/52 fraction of nodes in the real pig-trade network based on the MCMC or simulated annealing can improve the performance of a baseline strategy by 89%. The best heuristic-based testing strategy results in a 75% reduction in the average size of the outbreak compared to that of the baseline testing strategy.

Identification of Cancer/Testis Antigens Related to Gastric Cancer Prognosis Based on Co-Expression Network and Integrated Transcriptome Analyses.

Background: Gastric cancer is a worldwide life-threatening cancer. The underlying cause of it is still unknown. We have noticed that some cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) are up-regulated in gastric cancer. The role of these genes in gastric cancer development is not fully understood. The main aim of the current study was to comprehensively investigate CTAs' expression and function in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD). Materials and Methods: A comprehensive list of CTA genes was compiled from different databases. Transcriptome profiles of STAD were downloaded from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database and analyzed. Differentially-expressed CTAs were identified. Pathway enrichment analysis, weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA), and overall survival (OS) analysis were performed on differentially-expressed CTA genes. Results: Pathway enrichment analysis indicates that CTA genes are involved in protein binding, ribonucleic acid processing, and reproductive tissues. WGCNA showed that six differentially-expressed CTA genes, namely Melanoma antigen gene (MAGE) family member A3, A6, A12 and chondrosarcoma associated gene (CSAG) 1, 2, and 3, were correlated. Up-regulation of MAGEA11, MAGEC3, Per ARNT SIM domain containing 1 (PASD1), placenta-specific protein 1 (PLAC1) and sperm protein associated with the nucleus X-linked family member (SPANXB1) were significantly associated with lower OS of patients. Conclusion: MAGEA11, MAGEC3, PASD1, PLAC1, and SPANXB1 can be investigated as prognostic biomarkers in basic and clinical studies. Further functional experiments are needed to understand the exact interaction mechanisms of these genes.

LNCAROD promotes the proliferation and migration of gastric cancer: a bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a heterogeneous disease at the molecular and clinical levels. The diffuse subtype is associated with more aggressive behavior and poor prognosis than the intestinal subtype. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) may be involved in the diffuse mesenchymal phenotype. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) deregulation plays a vital role in GC development and progression. Here, we aimed to comprehensively disclose lncRNAs associated with GC diffuse/mesenchymal type. RNA-sequencing expression profiles of patients with stomach adenocarcinoma and the corresponding clinical data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Differentially expressed lncRNAs related to tumor samples and diffuse subtype were identified. The lncRNA activating regulator of DKK1 (LNCAROD) was experimentally studied. Furthermore, a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed to identify potential biological functions of LNCAROD. LNCAROD expression was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction in GC cell lines. LNCAROD expression was silenced using the small interference RNA strategy. Cell proliferation and migration were evaluated using colony formation assay, scratch wound healing, and Transwell migration assays. LNCAROD was significantly upregulated in some GC cells. The knocking down of LNCAROD significantly reduced cell proliferation and migration. LNCAROD-miR-181-PROX1 axis was introduced as a potential regulatory mechanism by which LNCAROD may exert its functions in cells. Our findings highlight that LNCAROD is involved in cell proliferation and migration in GC and supports its implicit role in regulating EMT. It may serve as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target in GC. In addition, LNCAROD may function through the possible regulatory axis in GC development.

Expert consensus for a national essential antidote list: E-Delphi method.

Antidote stocking represents a major challenge to hospitals all over the world, including Kuwait. In order to assist hospitals to reduce costs and improve patient care, an essential antidote list can be used as an initial foundation for securing sufficient antidote availability at healthcare institutions. The aim of our study is to generate a nationally relevant essential antidote list for emergency care hospitals in Kuwait using the e-Delphi method by establishing consensus through a multidisciplinary expert group of healthcare providers. An electronic survey with 47 essential antidotes was developed. The e-Delphi method was used, with three rounds of voting, to determine expert consensus on an essential antidote list for hospitals in Kuwait. A purposive sample of healthcare professionals from governmental and private hospitals were selected for this study (n = 30). Consensus was gained if ≥75% of the expert panel agreed on the inclusion of the antidote, without any strong disagreements. Round 1 of the e-Delphi resulted in 41 antidotes reaching consensus and seven new antidotes suggested by the expert panel. Round 2 had two antidotes (out of seven newly suggested ones) reaching consensus. Round 3 was a confirmatory round, where the expert group agreed on their previous rounds' opinions. This resulted in the development of an essential antidote list with 43 antidotes. The optimal approach for ensuring adequate availability of antidotes is continuous monitoring of local poisoning incidence and antidote requirements through collaborations between academic researchers and emergency care clinicians. The development of an essential antidote list, with expert consensus, is one of the initial steps in securing a foundation for appropriate provision of antidotes at all healthcare institutions. This is the first study that the authors are aware of that demonstrates that the e-Delphi technique can consolidate recommendations of experts in emergency medicine to provide a list of essential antidotes.

Carbon storage assessment in soil and plant organs: the role of Prosopis spp. on mitigate soil degradation.

Carbon sequestration is a process for stable storage of carbon dioxide. In this process, excess atmospheric carbon dioxide is stored by the aerial and underground organs of rangeland plants to reduce global warming. The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between some chemical properties of soil and ability of carbon storage in two plants, namely Prosopis cineraria and Prosopis juliflora in soil depth ranging between 0-15 and 15-30 cm. This research was carried out in Anbarabad region which is located at 258 km in the southeast of Kerman during 2016-2018. The present research was performed as a factorial experiment so that the first factor was the plant species and the control treatment and the second component was soil depth. Sampling was done from the shady soil of plants and the control area. Soil properties including organic carbon, bulk density, acidity, electrical conductivity and organic matter were analysed. The results indicated that the carbon stored at depths of 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm in the shade soil of P. cineraria was 21.39 and 24.36 t/ha, and in P. juliflora was 23.70 and 24.85 t/ha, and in control area is 19.83 and 21.31 t/ha. Also, the results of stepwise regression study showed that organic carbon percentage and bulk density are the most important factors affecting soil carbon sequestration.

A Temporal Network Model for Livestock Trade Systems.

The movements of animals between farms and other livestock holdings for trading activities form a complex livestock trade network. These movements play an important role in the spread of infectious diseases among premises. For studying the disease spreading among animal holdings, it is of great importance to understand the structure and dynamics of the trade system. In this paper, we propose a temporal network model for animal trade systems. Furthermore, a novel measure of node centrality important for disease spreading is introduced. The experimental results show that the model can reasonably well describe these spreading-related properties of the network and it can generate crucial data for research in the field of the livestock trade system.

Moving the epidemic tipping point through topologically targeted social distancing.

The epidemic threshold of a social system is the ratio of infection and recovery rate above which a disease spreading in it becomes an epidemic. In the absence of pharmaceutical interventions (i.e. vaccines), the only way to control a given disease is to move this threshold by non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing, past the epidemic threshold corresponding to the disease, thereby tipping the system from epidemic into a non-epidemic regime. Modeling the disease as a spreading process on a social graph, social distancing can be modeled by removing some of the graphs links. It has been conjectured that the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the resulting graph corresponds to the systems epidemic threshold. Here we use a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to study those link removals that do well at reducing the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix. The MCMC method generates samples from the relative canonical network ensemble with a defined expectation value of λ max . We call this the "well-controlling network ensemble" (WCNE) and compare its structure to randomly thinned networks with the same link density. We observe that networks in the WCNE tend to be more homogeneous in the degree distribution and use this insight to define two ad-hoc removal strategies, which also substantially reduce the largest eigenvalue. A targeted removal of 80% of links can be as effective as a random removal of 90%, leaving individuals with twice as many contacts. Finally, by simulating epidemic spreading via either an SIS or an SIR model on network ensembles created with different link removal strategies (random, WCNE, or degree-homogenizing), we show that tipping from an epidemic to a non-epidemic state happens at a larger critical ratio between infection rate and recovery rate for WCNE and degree-homogenized networks than for those obtained by random removals.

Astaxanthin encapsulation in multilayer emulsions stabilized by complex coacervates of whey protein isolate and Persian gum and its use as a natural colorant in a model beverage.

Crustacean byproducts are valuable sources of astaxanthin. In this study, an astaxanthin-rich lipid phase was extracted from shrimp waste and encapsulated in multilayer emulsions. Stabilized by electrostatic complexes of whey protein isolate (WPI) and Persian gum (PG), the multilayer emulsions were created by different WPI:PG mixing ratios (1:2-1:4). The resultant emulsions were then exposed to lyophilization. The encapsulation efficiency of astaxanthin in lyophilized powders was 42.9-49.8 (g astaxanthin/100 g astaxanthin). The moisture content and water activity of the powders decreased significantly (p < 0.05), but their solubility and hygroscopicity increased significantly (p < 0.05) in response to an increase in the PG content of the mixture (or by reducing the WPI:PG ratio). Morphological characterizations revealed the formation of smaller and more uniform microcapsules when higher amounts of PG were used. Water dispersibility was higher than 94 (g powder/100 g powder). The results of an accelerated stability test showed an improvement in astaxanthin chemical stability in the multilayer emulsions, particularly when the WPI:PG ratio was 1:4. A model beverage consisting of water (89 g/100 g), sugar (10 g/100 g) and citric acid (1 g/100 g) was prepared and the potential application of astaxanthin microcapsules as a natural colorant was studied and compared with a synthetic colorant (E110) under the effect of light/darkness, temperature (4 and 25 °C) and time (0-60 d). The encapsulated lipid extract imparted a highly stable color to the product which was comparable to the effect of the synthetic colorant. However, the astaxanthin concentration was highly affected by time and partially affected by light and temperature.

Chemoselective reduction of nitro and nitrile compounds using an Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag nanocomposite as a reusable catalyst.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were modified with carboxylic acid functional groups (MWCNTs-(COOH) n ) prior to decoration with Fe3O4 nanoparticles. A further modification step by polyethyleneimine (PEI) resulted in Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI which provided a suitable platform for coordination and in situ reduction of silver ions to obtain an Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag nanocomposite with highly dispersed Ag nanoparticles. The Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag hybrid material was characterized by various techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and was used as an efficient catalyst for chemoselective reduction of nitroaromatic and nitrile compounds to their corresponding amines in aqueous solution at ambient temperature. Nitrofurazone, a cytotoxic antibiotic, as a non-aromatic example was also reduced selectively at the nitro group without reduction of the other functionalities in the presence of Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag. The catalyst was magnetically recoverable and maintained its activity for at least six cycles without considerable loss of efficiency.

Effect of modified tapioca starch on the physicochemical and sensory properties of liquid kashk.

Three forms of modified tapioca starch, i.e. phosphorylated cross-linked tapioca starch (CLTS), octenyl succinic anhydride substituted tapioca starch (OSTS) and hydroxypropylated tapioca starch (HPTS) were studied and used as stabilizers (0.5, 1 and 1.5%) in industrial liquid kashk, and their effects on the physicochemical and sensory properties of products were examined during 60 days of refrigerated storage. When combined with the highest concentration of each stabilizer, the kashk reached its highest acidity, hardness, adhesiveness, viscosity and overall acceptability, while the lowest value of syneresis was obtained. Moreover, the highest values of viscosity was observed after incorporating CLTS into the samples, and other samples with HPTS showed the highest syneresis, hardness, adhesiveness and overall acceptability. During storage, there were significant trends of increase in the values of acidity, syneresis and hardness, whereas the viscosity, pH and adhesiveness decreased significantly. Several sensory attributes such as texture, odour value and overall acceptability were influenced by the type of stabilizer. In general, among the three kinds of modified tapioca starch, the HPTS was the most suitable form at the concentration of 1.5%, and this was most appropriate for the production of industrial liquid kashk with respect to high-quality physicochemical and sensory properties.

Jujube mucilage as a potential stabilizer in stirred yogurt: Improvements in the physiochemical, rheological, and sensorial properties.

Here, the mucilage of jujube was extracted and used as a natural stabilizer in the production of stirred yogurt. Yogurts were enriched with different concentrations of jujube mucilage (i.e., 0, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2%), and their physical, chemical and sensory attributes were analyzed during 21 days of storage at 4°C. The results showed that the protein and fat contents of the yogurts were not significantly different compared with each other, while higher ash contents were obtained in yogurts which contained higher concentrations of the mucilage. The acidity and proteolysis of the stirred yogurts were enhanced in the presence of mucilage, and they exhibited lower concentrations of diacetyl and acetaldehyde, although the differences were not significant among the samples of different treatments. The storage time had adverse and direct effects on the amounts of acetaldehyde and diacetyl, respectively. The effects of storage time and the presence of jujube mucilage in yogurts caused a significant decrease in the percentage of syneresis, while their viscosity and WHC values increased. The magnitudes of dynamic moduli (G, G''), complex viscosity (η*), and loss tangent (tan δ) of stirred yogurts increased by increasing the concentration of jujube mucilage. The yogurts which had been enriched with mucilage were preferred slightly less by tasters during the storage period, but these differences did not amount to a statistical significance. Generally, the results of the present study showed that the jujube mucilage can be potentially used as a natural stabilizer in stirred yogurt.

Diversity of respiratory viruses detected among hospitalized children with acute lower respiratory tract infections at Hospital Serdang, Malaysia.

BACKGROUND: The role of respiratory viruses as the major cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTIs) in children is becoming increasingly evident due to the use of sensitive molecular detection methods. The aim of this study was to use conventional and molecular detection methods to assess the epidemiology of respiratory viral infections in children less than five years of age that were hospitalized with ALRTIs. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the occurrence of respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytisl virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (HMPV), influenza virus A and B (IFV-A and B), parainfluenzavirus 1, 2, 3 and 4 (PIV 1, 2, 3 and 4), human rhinoviruses (HRV), human enterovirus (HEV), human coronaviruses (HCoV) 229E and OC43, human bocavirus (HBoV) and human adenovirus (HAdV) in hospitalized children with ALRTIs, at Hospital Serdang, Malaysia, from June 16 to December 21, 2009. The study was also designed in part to assess the performance of the conventional methods against molecular methods. RESULTS: Viral pathogens were detected in 158 (95.8%) of the patients. Single virus infections were detected in 114 (67.9%) patients; 46 (27.9%) were co-infected with different viruses including double-virus infections in 37 (22.4%) and triple-virus infections in 9 (5.5%) cases. Approximately 70% of samples were found to be positive using conventional methods compared with 96% using molecular methods. A wide range of respiratory viruses were detected in the study. There was a high prevalence of RSV (50.3%) infections, particularly group B viruses. Other etiological agents including HAdV, HMPV, IFV-A, PIV 1-3, HBoV, HCoV-OC43 and HEV were detected in 14.5, 9.6, 9.1, 4.8, 3.6, 2.4 and 1.8 percent of the samples, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated the increased sensitivity of molecular detection methods compared with conventional methods for the diagnosis of ARTIs in hospitalized children. This is the first report of HMPV infections in Malaysia.

Effect of packaging method, temperature and storage period on physicochemical and sensory properties of wild almond kernel.

This research was performed to monitor the effect of different temperatures (4, 25 and 35 °C) and atmospheres (vacuum, CO2 and normal air) on physicochemical and sensory properties of wild almond kernel during several weeks' storage. The color, moisture content and sensory analysis of the kernels, peroxide value (PV), 2-thiobarbiotic acid (TBA), conjugated dienes and trienes (CD, CT) and acid value (AV) of the oils were determined in defined time intervals. The results showed that the influence of temperature, time and type of atmosphere on the following parameters were significantly different. At all temperatures studied, AV, PV, TBA and CD/CT of oils from all samples increased with time which was less in the modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) compared with vacuum packaging (VP) and air atmosphere packaging (AAP). At the end of storage, the samples stored under AAP at 35 °C had the highest amount of PV (15.5 meq/kg), TBA (0.056 mg/kg) and CT (0.193 µmol/g), while the samples packaged under MAP at 4 °C had the lowest. Irrespective of packaging type, L* and b* values decreased during storage with a parallel increase of values a* resulting in gradual product darkening, especially in AAP. Sensory analysis also showed the decrease of overall acceptability during the storage among the three packaging systems. In conclusion, the use of MAP was the most effective method for protecting wild almond kernel from deteriorative reactions such as oxidation and hydrolysis.

Serum ghrelin levels and gender-related indices of body composition in prepubertal children: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: A wide variety of functions has been attributed to ghrelin, a peptide hormone secreted in the stomach. The objective of the study was to assess the association of ghrelin concentrations with body composition among Iranian children. METHODS: In this study, blood samples of 57 boys and 54 girls aged 6-10 were collected to measure ghrelin levels. Fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) were examined by body composition analyzer. Actigraph GT3X was administered to assess children's physical activity and sleep. Data were analyzed using linear regression models. RESULTS: All measured parameters did not differ between genders except for sleep time which was higher and sleep efficacy which was lower in boys compared with girls. None of the FM and FFM indices studied in boys was significantly associated with ghrelin levels. In girls, however, ghrelin concentrations were significantly associated with FM (ß = 0.04, P = 0.01), fat mass index (ß = 0.07, P = 0.008), and fat-free mass index (ß = 0.08, P = 0.04) and near-significantly associated with FFM (ß = 0.03, P = 0.09) after adjusting for age, physical activity, sleep, and dietary intake. CONCLUSION: Girls with higher ghrelin levels were more likely to have increased total FM and FFM. Conversely, body composition was not associated with ghrelin levels in boys. Consequently, ghrelin may influence the gender-related differences of body composition during childhood in girls. But, further study is needed to confirm our findings.

Synthesis, Characterization and Crystal Structure Studies of Nickel(II) Complexes With NO Donor Schiff Base Ligands.

Four complexes of the type [Ni(N-substituted-salicydenaminato)2], with bidentate Schiff base ligands (L1-L4), have been synthesized. The complexes were characterized by IR and elemental analysis methods. The solid state structures of three complexes (1-3) were determined by X-ray crystallography. The complexes show mononuclear, four-coordinate, slightly distorted square-planar trans-Ni(N2O2) geometry. The angles around the Ni center deviate slightly from 90° indicating a rectangular distortion. The chelating N-Ni-O angles are larger than 90° whereas the non-chelating N-Ni-O angles are smaller than 90°. The crystallograpic studies indicate that any steric/electronic effects due to CH3 and Br moieties have had no significant impact on the coordination sphere.

Empathy and its correlates in Iranian physicians: A preliminary psychometric study of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy.

BACKGROUND: Empathy is one of the fundamental factors in patient care that is beneficial to both patient and physician. AIMS: To assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) in a sample of Iranian physicians and examine its correlates. METHOD: Two hundred and seven general physicians completed the JSPE. The associations of empathy scores with demographic characteristics and practice-related variables were examined. RESULTS: The scale showed an acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.78). Three of six extracted factors were considered as prominent based on the scree test, which were similar to those obtained in the US samples. Women scored higher than men. Empathy improved with increasing practice experiences. Other practice-related variables did not show a significant association with empathy. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the construct and criterion-related validities and reliability of the Persian version of the JSPE. Score difference between Iranian and American samples may not reflect a genuine difference in empathy trait and can be explained by cultural factors.