Anderson Localization of Phonons in Thermally Superinsulating Graphene Aerogels with Metal-Like Electrical Conductivity.

In the quest to improve energy efficiency and design better thermal insulators, various engineering strategies have been extensively investigated to minimize heat transfer through a material. Yet, the suppression of thermal transport in a material remains elusive because heat can be transferred by multiple energy carriers. Here, the realization of Anderson localization of phonons in a random 3D elastic network of graphene is reported. It is shown that thermal conductivity in a cellular graphene aerogel can be drastically reduced to 0.9 mW m-1 K-1 by the application of compressive strain while keeping a high metal-like electrical conductivity of 120 S m-1 and ampacity of 0.9 A. The experiments reveal that the strain can cause phonon localization over a broad compression range. The remaining heat flow in the material is dominated by charge transport. Conversely, electrical conductivity exhibits a gradual increase with increasing compressive strain, opposite to the thermal conductivity. These results imply that strain engineering provides the ability to independently tune charge and heat transport, establishing a new paradigm for controlling phonon and charge conduction in solids. This approach will enable the development of a new type of high-performance insulation solutions and thermally superinsulating materials with metal-like electrical conductivity.

Thiazole-Based Silver Ion Sensor for Sequential Colorimetric Visualization of Epinephrine in the Brain Tissues of an Alzheimer's Disease Model of Mouse.

A thiazole-based probe, N'-((2-aminothiazol-5-yl)methylene)benzohydrazide (TBH), has been efficiently synthesized and characterized for the selective and sensitive detection of the neurotransmitter epinephrine (EP). The sensing strategy is based on the use of TBH for sequential colorimetric sensing of Ag+ and EP via in situ formation of Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) from the TBH-Ag+ complex. The generated Ag NPs lead to a bathochromic shift in absorption maximum and a change in color of the solution from light brown to reddish brown. TBH-Ag+ shows remarkable selectivity toward EP versus other drugs, common cations, anions, and some biomolecules. Moreover, TBH-Ag+ has a low detection limit for EP at 1.2 nM. The coordination of TBH-Ag+ has been proposed based on Job's plot, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), 1H NMR titration, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), and density functional theory (DFT) studies. The composition and morphology of the generated Ag NPs have been analyzed by XPS, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The proposed sensing mechanism for EP has been supported by XPS of Ag after the reaction. Further, the sensitivity of TBH-Ag+ toward EP in brain tissues of an Alzheimer's disease model of mouse has been evaluated. A thorough comparison was done for evaluation of the proposed method.

A Secure and Interpretable AI for Smart Healthcare System: A Case Study on Epilepsy Diagnosis Using EEG Signals.

The efficient patient-independent and interpretable framework for electroencephalogram (EEG) epileptic seizure detection (ESD) has informative challenges due to the complex pattern of EEG nature. Automated detection of ES is crucial, and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is urgently needed to justify algorithmic predictions in clinical settings. Therefore, this study implements an XAI-based computer-aided ES detection system (XAI-CAESDs), comprising three major modules including of feature engineering module, a seizure detection module, and an explainable decision-making process module in a smart healthcare system. To ensure the privacy and security of biomedical EEG data, the blockchain is employed. Initially, the Butterworth filter eliminates various artifacts, and the Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (DTCWT) decomposes EEG signals, extracting real and imaginary eigenvalue features using frequency domain (FD), time domain (TD), and Fractal Dimension (FD) of linear and non-linear features. The best features are selected by using Correlation Coefficients (CC) and Distance Correlation (DC). The selected features are fed into the Stacking Ensemble Classifiers (SEC) for EEG ES detection. Further, the Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) method of XAI is implemented to facilitate the interpretation of predictions made by the proposed approach, enabling medical experts to make accurate and understandable decisions. The proposed ensemble-based stacking classifiers in XAI-CAESDs have demonstrated 2% best average accuracy, Recall, specificity, and F1-score using the University of California, Irvine, Bonn University, and Boston Children's Hospital-MIT EEG data sets. The proposed framework enhances decision-making and the diagnosis process using biomedical EEG signals and ensures data security in smart healthcare systems.

Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Ferulic Acid Template-Based Novel Multifunctional Ligands Targeting NLRP3 Inflammasome for the Management of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, which arises due to low levels of acetyl and butyrylcholines, an increase in oxidative stress, inflammation, metal dyshomeostasis, Aß and tau aggregations. The currently available drugs for AD treatment can provide only symptomatic relief without interfering with pathological hallmarks of the disease. In our ongoing efforts to develop naturally inspired novel multifunctional molecules for AD, systematic SAR studies on EJMC-4e were caried out to improve its multifunctional properties. The rigorous medicinal efforts led to the development of 12o, which displayed a 15-fold enhancement in antioxidant properties and a 2-fold increase in the activity against AChE and BChE over EJMC-4e. Molecular docking and dynamics studies revealed the binding sites and stability of the complex of 12o with AChE and BChE. The PAMPA-BBB assay clearly demonstrated that 12o can easily cross the blood-brain barrier. Interestingly, 12o also expresses promising metal chelation activity, while EJMC-4e was found to be devoid of this property. Further, 12o inhibited metal-induced or self Aß1-42 aggregation. Observing the neuroprotection ability of 12o against H2O2-induced oxidative stress in the PC-12 cell line is noteworthy. Furthermore, 12o also inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation and attenuated mitochondrial-induced ROS and MMP damage caused by LPS and ATP in HMC-3 cells. In addition, 12o is able to effectively reduce mitochondrial and cellular oxidative stress in the AD Drosophila model. Finally, 12o could reverse memory impairment in the scopolamine-induced AD mice model, as evident through in vivo and ex vivo studies. These findings suggest that this compound may act as a promising candidate for further improvement in the management of AD.

Effect of short-term exposure to high-altitude hypoxic climate on feed-intake, blood glucose level and physiological responses of native and non-native goat.

The exposure to high altitude and cold stress poses challenges in maintaining normal physiological standards and body homeostasis in non-native animals. To enhance our understanding of the physiology of native and non-native goats in high-altitude environments, we conducted a comparative study to examine the impact of natural hypoxic and cold stress conditions on their feed intake (FIT) and associated changes in physiological responses, including plasma glucose concentration (PGC). The study took place at an altitude of 3505.2 m above mean sea level and involved twenty-two healthy females from two different breeds of goats. This study was conducted over a period of 56 days after the arrival of non-native Black Bengal goats (BBN) and compared with native Changthangi (CHAN) goats. Both groups were extensively reared in a natural high-altitude and cold-stress environment in Leh, India, and were subjected to defined housing and management practices. The parameters evaluated included FIT, PGC, respiration rate, heart rate, pulse rate, and rectal temperature. High altitudes had a significant (p < 0.05) impact on FIT, PGC, respiration rate, heart rate, pulse rate, and rectal temperature in BBN, whereas these parameters remained stable in CHAN throughout the study period. Additionally, the detrimental effects of high-altitude stress were more pronounced in non-native goats compared to native goats. These findings suggest that physiological responses in non-native goats tend to stabilize after an initial period of adverse effects in high-altitude environments. Based on the physiological responses and glucose concentration, it is recommended to pay special attention to the nutrition of non-native goats for up to the third week (21 days) after their arrival in high-altitude areas.

Manipulating ultrafast magnetization dynamics of ferromagnets using the odd-even layer dependence of two-dimensional transition metal di-chalcogenides.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have drawn immense interest due to their strong spin-orbit coupling and unique layer number dependence in response to spin-valley coupling. This leads to the possibility of controlling the spin degree of freedom of the ferromagnet (FM) in thin film heterostructures and may prove to be of interest for next-generation spin-based devices. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the odd-even layer dependence of WS2 nanolayers by measurements of the ultrafast magnetization dynamics in WS2/Co3FeB thin film heterostructures by using time-resolved Kerr magnetometry. The fluence (photon energy per unit area) dependent magnetic damping (α) reveals the existence of broken symmetry and the dominance of inter- and intraband scattering for odd and even layers of WS2, respectively. The higher demagnetization time, τm, in 3 and 5 layers of WS2 is indicative of the interaction between spin-orbit and spin-valley coupling due to the broken symmetry. The lower τm in even layers as compared to the bare FM layer suggests the presence of a spin transport. By correlating τm and α, we pinpointed the dominant mechanisms of ultrafast demagnetization. The mechanism changes from spin transport to spin-flip scattering for even layers of WS2 with increasing fluence. A fundamental understanding of the two-dimensional material and its odd-even layer dependence at ultrashort timescales provides valuable information for designing next-generation spin-based devices.

A chromogenic diarylethene-based probe for the detection of Cu2+ in aqueous medium in Drosophila for early diagnosis of Alzheimer.

A diarylethene-based probe (Z)-N'-((2-amino-5-chlorophenyl)(phenyl)methylene)-2-hydroxy benzohydrazide (KBH) has been proficiently developed and its structure has been confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction technique. It displays a selective and sensitive colorimetric sensing of Cu2+ ions in aqueous medium with a naked eye colour change from colourless to yellow. It exhibits a significantly low limit of detection as 1.5 nM. A plausible binding mechanism has been proposed using Job's plot, FT-IR, 1H NMR titration, HRMS and DFT studies. The chemosensor is effectively reversible and reusable with EDTA. Test strip kit and real water sample analysis have been shown to establish its practical applicability. Further, the potential of KBH for the early diagnosis of Cu2+ ion-induced amyloid toxicity has been investigated in eye imaginal disc of Alzheimer's disease model of Drosophila 3rd instar larvae. The in-vivo interaction of KBH with Cu2+ in gut tissues of Drosophila larvae establishes its sensing capability in biological system. Interestingly, the in-vivo detection of Cu2+ has been done using bright field imaging which eliminates the necessity of a fluorescent label, hence making the method highly economical.

Saliva as a potential non-invasive liquid biopsy for early and easy diagnosis/prognosis of head and neck cancer.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are the most devastating diseases in India and southeast Asia. It is a preventable and curable disease if detected early. Tobacco and alcohol consumption are the two major risk-factors but infection of high-risk HPVs are also associated with development of predominantly oral and oropharyngeal carcinomas. Interestingly, unlike cervical cancer, HPV-induced HNSCCs show good prognosis and better survival in contrast, majority of tobacco-associated HPV-ve HNSCCs are highly aggressive with poor clinical outcome. Biomarker analysis in circulatory body-fluids for early cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring are becoming important in clinical practice. Early diagnosis using non-invasive saliva for oral or other diseases plays an important role in successful treatment and better prognosis. Saliva mirrors the body's state of health as it comes into direct contact with oral lesions and needs no trained manpower to collect, making it a suitable bio-fluid of choice for screening. Saliva can be used to detect not only virus, bacteria and other biomarkers but variety of molecular and genetic markers for an early detection, treatment and monitoring cancer and other diseases. The performance of saliva-based diagnostics are reported to be highly (≥95 %) sensitive and specific indicating the test's ability to correctly identify true positive or negative cases. This review focuses on the potentials of saliva in the early detection of not only HPV or other pathogens but also identification of highly reliable gene mutations, oral-microbiomes, metabolites, salivary cytokines, non-coding RNAs and exosomal miRNAs. It also discusses the importance of saliva as a reliable, cost-effective and an easy alternative to invasive procedures.

Pan-India influenza-like illness (ILI) and Severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance: epidemiological, clinical and genomic analysis.

Background: Over time, COVID-19 testing has significantly declined across the world. However, it is critical to monitor the virus through surveillance. In late 2020, WHO released interim guidance advising the use of the existing Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) for the integrated surveillance of influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Methods: In July 2021, we initiated a pan-India integrated surveillance for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 through the geographically representative network of Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDLs) across 26 hospital and laboratory sites and 70 community sites. A total of 34,260 cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and Severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) were enrolled from 4 July 2021 to 31 October 2022. Findings: Influenza A(H3) and B/Victoria dominated during 2021 monsoon season while A(H1N1)pdm09 dominated during 2022 monsoon season. The SARS-CoV-2 "variants of concern" (VoC) Delta and Omicron predominated in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Increased proportion of SARI was seen in extremes of age: 90% cases in < 1 year; 68% in 1 to 5 years and 61% in ≥ 8 years age group. Approximately 40.7% of enrolled cases only partially fulfilled WHO ILI and SARI case definitions. Influenza- and SARS-CoV-2-infected comorbid patients had higher risks of hospitalization, ICU admission, and oxygen requirement. Interpretation: The results depicted the varying strains and transmission dynamics of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses over time, thus emphasizing the need to continue and expand surveillance across countries for improved decision making. The study also describes important information related to clinical outcomes of ILI and SARI patients and highlights the need to review existing WHO ILI and SARI case definitions.

Perceptions of primary and secondary care clinicians treating diabetic foot: A pan India study and quantitative analysis.

AIM: The study quantifies clinicians' perceptions and challenges during different stages of diabetic foot treatment. Diabetic neuropathy (DN), which is a major consequence of diabetes, significantly increases the risk of lower limb amputation. This can be prevented to a large extent by foot care, early detection, and lesion treatment. METHODS: Ninety-two Indian clinicians of various demographics, medical specializations, and experiences were interviewed. Diabetic foot treatment by primary and secondary care clinicians was assessed. This study evaluates aspects related to patient awareness, compliance, and shortcomings of current diagnostic techniques. RESULTS: A two-sample Mann-Whitney statistical method was used to infer the perceptions of clinicians on hypothesis questions. Primary and secondary care clinicians' perceptions differed for the hypotheses related to objective assessment (p-value = 0.001), operator variability (p-value = 0.03), and patient compliance (p-value = 0.047). Conversely, both groups held comparative perspectives for the awareness (p-value = 0.369) and examination time (p-value = 0.276) hypotheses. CONCLUSIONS: All clinicians strongly supported the need for an objective assessment to reduce the misdiagnosis of DN. Further, DNis often underdiagnosed due to a lack of awareness and knowledgeamong people with diabetes. Secondary care clinicians acknowledged a need for trained operators to reduce reliability errors. These insights provide directions for future research in this field.

Influenza Vaccine Type-Dependent Antibody Response in Patients with Autoimmune Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases.

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to explore influenza antibody response in patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatoid diseases (AIIRDs) stratified by the different vaccine types applied in Denmark during the 2018-2019 influenza season. METHODS: Included patients were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or spondyloarthritis receiving biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) with or without conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Influenza vaccination status in the 2018-2019 season and vaccine type received were reviewed in the Denmark. Blood samples were drawn ≥ 14 days post vaccination, and antibody titers were determined by the hemagglutinin inhibition (HAI) assay for the serotypes A/Michigan/H1N1, A/Singapore/H3N2, and B/Colorado included in the influenza vaccines in the 2018-2019 season. An overall serotype HAI geometric mean titer (GMT) was calculated from the 3 serotype-specific HAI titers. An overall serotype HAI GMT ≥ 40 was considered protective. RESULTS: Of the 205 included patients, 105 (51%) had received influenza vaccination. One-quarter of vaccinated patients achieved post-vaccination overall serotype HAI GMT ≥40. For patients vaccinated with Influvac, a significantly higher proportion had HAI titers ≥ 40 for 2 serotypes, namely, A/Michigan/H1N1 and A/Singapore/H3N2, than patients vaccinated with Vaxigrip or VaxigripTetra. The same applied to all serotypes HAI GMT, where significantly more patients who received Influvac achieved postvaccination HAI GMT≥40 versus patients who received Vaxigrip (p=0.02) or VaxigripTetra (p=0.002). The latter outcome was explored in a multivariable logistic regression analysis and remained significant when including the following variables: age, sex, treatment with methotrexate and/or prednisolone, type of influenza vaccine, time interval from vaccination to antibody measurement, and previous vaccination status. CONCLUSION: Influenza antibody levels following vaccination with Influvac in bDMARD-treated patients with AIIRDs were superior to Vaxigrip and VaxigripTetra. Treatment with methotrexate (MTX) did not reduce the antibody response.

An Improved Image Compression Algorithm Using 2D DWT and PCA with Canonical Huffman Encoding.

Of late, image compression has become crucial due to the rising need for faster encoding and decoding. To achieve this objective, the present study proposes the use of canonical Huffman coding (CHC) as an entropy coder, which entails a lower decoding time compared to binary Huffman codes. For image compression, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and CHC with principal component analysis (PCA) were combined. The lossy method was introduced by using PCA, followed by DWT and CHC to enhance compression efficiency. By using DWT and CHC instead of PCA alone, the reconstructed images have a better peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). In this study, we also developed a hybrid compression model combining the advantages of DWT, CHC and PCA. With the increasing use of image data, better image compression techniques are necessary for the efficient use of storage space. The proposed technique achieved up to 60% compression while maintaining high visual quality. This method also outperformed the currently available techniques in terms of both PSNR (in dB) and bit-per-pixel (bpp) scores. This approach was tested on various color images, including Peppers 512 × 512 × 3 and Couple 256 × 256 × 3, showing improvements by 17 dB and 22 dB, respectively, while reducing the bpp by 0.56 and 0.10, respectively. For grayscale images as well, i.e., Lena 512 × 512 and Boat 256 × 256, the proposed method showed improvements by 5 dB and 8 dB, respectively, with a decrease of 0.02 bpp in both cases.

Morphometry and Morphology of the Acromion Process and Its Implications in Subacromial Impingement Syndrome.

Introduction Subacromial impingement syndrome (SIS) is a common shoulder disorder characterized by pain and limited range of motion in the shoulder joint. It is frequently attributed to the compression or impingement of the rotator cuff tendons and bursa between the humeral head and the acromion process of the scapula during arm elevation. Subacromial impingement syndrome may arise as a result of the morphology of the acromion process, a bony protrusion at the top of the scapula that is important in the biomechanics of the shoulder joint. In order to detect potential anatomical differences that can predispose people to subacromial impingement syndrome, medical professionals and researchers need to have a thorough understanding of the morphometry and morphology of the acromion process. Aims and objectives The aim of the present study was to measure the morphometric and morphological characteristics of the acromion process in dried human scapulae that belonged to the North Indian population. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional study that was carried out on 120 undamaged adult human scapula, of which 52 belonged to the right side and 68 belonged to the left side. Our study focused on analyzing the morphology of the acromion process as well as determining its maximum length, maximum breadth, acromio-coracoid distance, acromio-glenoid distance, and thickness. A statistical analysis of the observed parameters was carried out using the chi-square test and independent t-test with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) 24.0. Statistical significance was set at 0.05 (if the P-value ≤ 0.05, it is significant). Results We observed that the quadrangular shape (51.67%) of the acromion process was most commonly reported in our study, while the tubular (9.99%) shape was the least common. The difference in the incidences of various shapes of the acromion process on the right and left sides of the scapula was found to be statistically significant (p-value ≤ 0.05). In this study, the curved or type II acromion process was the most common type (53.34%) observed, while the least common shape reported was the hooked type (18.33%). The average length of the right acromion process was 44.52±6.61 mm, and the left acromion process was 45.13±6.35 mm. For the breadth, the right acromion had an average value of 28.31±4.67 mm, while the left had an average of 28.34±4.92 mm. The thickness of the right acromion measured 7.10±1.73 mm, and the left acromion was 7.53±1.44 mm. The acromio-coracoid distance on the right side was 34.59 ± 6.47 mm, and the left side was 37.46±6.22 mm. The acromio-glenoid distance was measured to be 32.31±5.87 mm on the right side and 33.18±5.39 mm on the left side. Conclusions Planning and carrying out an acromioplasty require an understanding of the morphometric parameters of the acromion process. Although there is a paucity of research on its morphometric evaluation in the North Indian population, the surgeons would be able to use these data as a reference.

A Novel Rhodamine Probe Acting as Chemosensor for Selective Recognition of Cu2+ and Hg2+ Ions: An Experimental and First Principle Studies.

Copper and Mercury ions have vital role to play in biological world as their excess or deficiency can cause different type of diseases in human being as well as biological species including plants and animals. Therefore, their detection at trace level becomes very important in term of biological. The current studies embody the fabrication, structural characterization and recognition behavior of a novel rhodamine B hydrazone formed when hydrazide of rhodamine B was condensed with 5-Allyl-3-methoxy salicylaldehyde (RBMA). RBMA was found to be responsive towards the very trace level of Cu2+ and Hg2+ among other tested cations so far. The sensing procedure is based on the classical opening of the spiroatom ring of rhodamine. The limit of detection (LOD) and binding constant is 5.35 ppm, 2.06 × 104 M-1 and 5.16 ppm, 1.26 × 104 M-1 for Cu2+ and Hg2+ ions respectively. The probable mechanism correlates the specific binding of RBMA with Cu2+ and Hg2+ ions. The 1:1 stoichiometry of RBMA with Cu2+ and Hg2+ ions have been supported by HRMS, FT-IR data, Job's plot, and binding constant data. Reversibility is well exhibited by RBMA by the involvement of CO32- ions via demetallation process. The real time application is well demonstrated by the use of paper strip test. The DFT study also carried out which agrees well with the experimental findings. The results displayed the novelty of this current work towards the trace level analysis of the Cu2+ and Hg2+ of the cations which are play the crucial role in industry.

Prevalence of autoimmune, cholestatic and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in celiac disease.

BACKGROUND: While there is higher prevalence of autoimmune, cholestatic and fatty liver disease in celiac disease (CeD), most data is from small-scale studies. We evaluated the prevalence and risk factors of the same using large cohort data. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted using Explorys, a multi-institutional database. Prevalence and risk factors of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in CeD were assessed. RESULTS: Out of 70 352 325 subjects, 136 735 had CeD (0.19%). The prevalence of AIH (0.32%), PBC (0.15%), PSC (0.004%) and NAFLD (0.7%) were high in CeD. After adjusting for age, gender, Caucasian race and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody (anti-TTG), CeD subjects had higher odds of AIH [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 7.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 6.32-7.89] and PBC (aOR 4.16, 95% CI 3.46-5.0). Even after adjusting for CeD, anti-TTG positivity concurred with higher odds of AIH (aOR 4.79, 95% CI 3.88-5.92) and PBC (aOR 9.22, 95% CI 7.03-12.1). After adjusting for age, gender, Caucasian race, diabetes mellitus (DM), obesity, hypothyroidism and metabolic syndrome, there was higher prevalence of NAFLD in CeD, with the aOR in the presence of DM type 1 being 2.1 (95% CI 1.96-2.25), and in the presence of DM type 2 being 2.92 (95% CI 2.72-3.14). CONCLUSION: Subjects with CeD are more likely to have AIH, PBC, PSC and NAFLD. AIH and PBC have higher odds in the presence of anti-TTG. The odds of NAFLD in CeD are high regardless of type of DM.

Availability of Primary Care Physicians and Racial Disparities in Colorectal Cancer-Related Mortality in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States (US), however racial disparities in outcomes persist. We sought to assess the correlation of availability of primary care physicians (PCPs) and racial disparities in CRC-related mortality. METHODS: We studied the correlation between age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates of CRC among all 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) with the number of actively practicing PCPs in all 50 states and D.C. from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) State Physician Workforce Data Report. Pearson's coefficient was used to study correlations and the two-sample t test was used for comparing state-level PCP/CRC ratios between the two groups. Statistical analysis was performed using VassarStats. RESULTS: The mean AAMR per 100,000 population for CRC was significantly higher among AA versus White populations (t = 5.79, p < 0.001). Higher state-wide PCP per CRC case ratio correlated with lower state-wide CRCrelated mortality (r = -0.36, p = 0.011). The mean PCP per CRC case ratio was significantly lower among AA compared to White populations (t = -15.95, p < 0.0001). Higher PCP per CRC case ratio correlated with lower CRC-related mortality among both White (r = -0.64, p < 0.0001) and AA (r = -0.57, p = 0.0002) populations. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that racial disparities in CRC-related mortality may at least in part be related to lower availability of PCPs. Efforts focused on the development of strategies focused on improving access to primary care may help bridge racial disparities in CRC-related outcomes.

Fluorescent Turn-On Anthracene-Based Aluminum(III) Sensor for a Therapeutic Study in Alzheimer's Disease Model of Drosophila.

A new anthracene-based probe (E)-N'-(1-(anthracen-9-yl)ethylidene)-2-hydroxybenzohydrazide (AHB) has been efficiently synthesized and characterized by various spectroscopic methods. It exhibits extremely selective and sensitive fluorometric sensing of Al3+ ions with a large enhancement in the fluorescent intensity due to the restricted photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism with a chelation-enhanced fluorescence (CHEF) effect. The AHB-Al3+ complex shows a remarkably low limit of detection at 0.498 nM. The binding mechanism has been proposed based on Job's plot, 1H NMR titration, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), and density functional theory (DFT) studies. The chemosensor is reusable and reversible in the presence of ctDNA. The practical usability of the fluorosensor has been established by a test strip kit. Further, the therapeutic potential of AHB against Al3+ ion-induced tau protein toxicity has been tested in the eye of Alzheimer's disease (AD) model of Drosophila via metal chelation therapy. AHB shows great therapeutic potential with 53.3% rescue in the eye phenotype. The in vivo interaction study of AHB with Al3+ in the gut tissue of Drosophila confirms its sensing efficiency in the biological environment. A detailed comparison table included evaluates the effectiveness of AHB.

Universal Strategy for Reversing Aging and Defects in Graphene Oxide for Highly Conductive Graphene Aerogels.

The production of highly stable, defect-free, and electrically conducting 3D graphene structures from graphene oxide precursors is challenging. This is because graphene oxide is a metastable material whose structure and chemistry evolve due to aging. Aging changes the relative composition of oxygen functional groups attached to the graphene oxide and negatively impacts the fabrication and properties of reduced graphene oxide. Here, we report a universal strategy to reverse the aging of graphene oxide precursors using oxygen plasma treatment. This treatment decreases the size of graphene oxide flakes and restores negative zeta potential and suspension stability in water, enabling the fabrication of compact and mechanically stable graphene aerogels using hydrothermal synthesis. Moreover, we employ high-temperature annealing to remove oxygen-containing functionalities and repair the lattice defects in reduced graphene oxide. This method allows obtaining highly electrically conducting graphene aerogels with electrical conductivity of 390 S/m and low defect density. The role of carboxyl, hydroxyl, epoxide, and ketonic oxygen species is thoroughly investigated using X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopies. Our study provides unique insight into the chemical transformations occurring during the aging and thermal reduction of graphene oxide from room temperature up to 2700 °C.