Geographic variability in limited English proficiency: A cross-cultural study of cognitive profiles.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of limited English proficiency (LEP) on neurocognitive profiles. METHOD: Romanian (LEP-RO; n = 59) and Arabic (LEP-AR; n = 30) native speakers were compared to Canadian native speakers of English (NSE; n = 24) on a strategically selected battery of neuropsychological tests. RESULTS: As predicted, participants with LEP demonstrated significantly lower performance on tests with high verbal mediation relative to US norms and the NSE sample (large effects). In contrast, several tests with low verbal mediation were robust to LEP. However, clinically relevant deviations from this general pattern were observed. The level of English proficiency varied significantly within the LEP-RO and was associated with a predictable performance pattern on tests with high verbal mediation. CONCLUSIONS: The heterogeneity in cognitive profiles among individuals with LEP challenges the notion that LEP status is a unitary construct. The level of verbal mediation is an imperfect predictor of the performance of LEP examinees during neuropsychological testing. Several commonly used measures were identified that are robust to the deleterious effects of LEP. Administering tests in the examinee's native language may not be the optimal solution to contain the confounding effect of LEP in cognitive evaluations.

For better or for worse family-related well-being: A meta-analysis of crossover effects in dyadic studies.

The present preregistered meta-analysis aimed to assess the evidence regarding the work-family interactions, as dyadic studies report them. The introduction differentiated between spillover (or intra-individual) effects and crossover (or inter-individual) effects by using dyadic studies. Following an online and reference list search, out of the initial 339 studies, 36 eligible articles reported correlations between one partner's variables and the other partner's variables. Analyses included 1504 effect sizes and used meta-analytical calculations and structural equation modeling. Both partners' well-being measures had small proportions of shared variance (i.e. shared variance up to 13.69%). The following analyses focused on the potential effects that could explain the shared variance of family-related well-being. There was little evidence of a crossover effect from one's work-related variables toward the partners' family-related well-being. Furthermore, analyses using structural equation modeling did not yield any results to support a crossover effect from one's work-family interaction toward their partner's well-being. These findings suggest that the literature needs new research studies regarding how family-related demands and resources are related to well-being and personal resources in the crossover processes.

On the Stability of Glutaraldehyde in Biocide Compositions.

Glutaraldehyde (GA) is used as biocide in hospitals. Recent public investigations on the chemical composition of biocides used in Romania have in some cases found GA, as a key ingredient, to be apparently diluted. However, these data did not explicitly consider the complex chemical equilibria inherent to GA. An investigation of experimental and theoretical data is reported here, assessing the stability of GA solutions relevant for biocide compositions. GA solutions of various chemical composition and under varying circumstances were analyzed using spectroscopy (UV-VIS, Raman, NMR) coupled with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, as well as chemically, such as via the formation of imines in reaction/titration with glycine monitored at 270 nm; using LC-MS; or using SDS-PAGE analysis with GA as reagent in the polymerization of two test proteins- hemoglobin and myoglobin. The spectral properties of GA changed significantly over time, in a temperature-dependent manner; titration with glycine confirmed the spectral data. SDS-PAGE experiments demonstrated a non-linear and apparently unpredictable change in the reactivity of GA over time. The results may be relevant for the determination of GA concentration in various settings such as biocide analysis, hospital wastewaters, and others.

Excess Ascorbate is a Chemical Stress Agent against Proteins and Cells.

Excess ascorbate (as expected in intravenous treatment proposed for COVID-19 management, for example) oxidizes and/or degrades hemoglobin and albumin, as evidenced by UV-vis spectroscopy, gel electrophoresis, and mass spectrometry. It also degrades hemoglobin in intact blood or in isolated erythrocytes. The survival rates and metabolic activities of several leukocyte subsets implicated in the antiviral cellular immune response are also affected. Excess ascorbate is thus an unselective biological stress agent.

The high affinity of small-molecule antioxidants for hemoglobin.

Hemoglobin has previously been shown to display ascorbate peroxidase and urate peroxidase activity, with measurable Michaelis-Menten parameters that reveal a particularly low Km for ascorbate as well as for urate - lower than the respective in vivo concentrations of these antioxidants in blood. Also, direct detection of a hemoglobin-ascorbate interaction was possible by monitoring the 1H-NMR spectrum of ascorbate in the presence of hemoglobin. The relative difference in structures between ascorbate and urate may raise the question as to exactly what the defining structural features would be, for a substrate that binds to hemoglobin with high affinity. Reported here are Michaelis-Menten parameters for hemoglobin acting as peroxidase against a number of other substrates of varying structures - gallate, caffeate, rutin, 3-hydroxyflavone, 3,6-dihydroxyflavone, quercetin, epicatechin, luteolin - all with high affinities (some higher than those of physiologically-relevant redox partners of Hb - ascorbate and urate). Moreover, this high affinity appears general to animal hemoglobins. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra reveal a general pattern wherein small hydrophilic antioxidants appear to all have their signals affected, presumably due to binding to hemoglobin. Fluorescence and calorimetry measurements confirm these conclusions. Docking calculations confirm the existence of binding sites on hemoglobin and on myoglobin for ascorbate as well as for other antioxidants. Support is found for involvement of Tyr42 in binding of three out of the four substrates investigated in the case of hemoglobin (including ascorbate and urate, as blood-contained relevant substrates), but also for Tyr145 (with urate and caffeate) and Tyr35 (with gallate).

Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells Using Microfluidics.

Metastasis is the main cause of death in cancer patients worldwide. During metastasis, cancer cells detach from the primary tumor and invade distant tissue. The cells that undergo this process are called circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Studies show that the number of CTCs in the peripheral blood can predict progression-free survival and overall survival and can be informative concerning the efficacy of treatment. Research is now concentrated on developing devices that can detect CTCs in the blood of cancer patients with improved sensitivity and specificity that can lead to improved clinical evaluation. This review focuses on devices that detect and capture CTCs using different cell properties (surface markers, size, deformability, electrical properties, etc.). We also discuss the process of tumor cell dissemination, the biology of CTCs, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and several challenges and clinical applications of CTC detection.

FTIR Spectroscopy for Carbon Family Study.

Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a versatile technique for the characterization of materials belonging to the carbon family. Based on the interaction of the IR radiation with matter this technique may be used for the identification and characterization of chemical structures. Most important features of this method are: non-destructive, real-time measurement and relatively easy to use. Carbon basis for all living systems has found numerous industrial applications from carbon coatings (i.e. amorphous and nanocrystalline carbon films: diamond-like carbon (DLC) films) to nanostructured materials (fullerenes, nanotubes, graphene) and carbon materials at nanoscale or carbon dots (CDots). In this paper, we present the FTIR vibrational spectroscopy for the characterization of diamond, amorphous carbon, graphite, graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), fullerene and carbon quantum dots (CQDs), without claiming to cover entire field.

Analysis of Phenolic Compounds in Some Medicinal Herbs by LC-MS.

In this paper, a liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry in negative mode method was developed for the identification and quantitative determination of 13 individual phenolics (chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, coumaric acid, ferulic acid, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, rutin, quercitrin, isoquercitrin, fisetin, isorhamnetin, hesperidin and chrysin) from ethanolic extracts [30, 50 and 70% (w/v)] of Calendula officinalis, Hypericum perforatum, Galium verum and Origanum vulgare and some commercial extracts of these medicinal herbs. Correlation coefficients (r(2)) from calibration curves for all the compounds were between 0.9971 and 0.9996. Limit of detection was in the range of 0.070-0.280 µg/mL and limit of quantification was from 0.233 to 0.932 µg/mL. The method was partially validated and the results obtained are: the intra- and interday relative standard deviation values were within 0.086 and 2.821% and recovery values vary from 95.84% (coumaric acid) to 103.20% (rutin).

Ce, Gd codoped YAG nanopowder for white light emitting device.

In the last years white light emitting devices have received increased attention and have been used in a wide range of applications due to their long lifetime, high luminescence efficiency, low power consumption and environment friendliness, compared to conventional light sources. The discovery and improvement of inorganic phosphors that can be excited by a GaN chip in the wavelength range 370-470 nm is essential for the efficiency and quality of the emitted light. In the white light emitting device technology, the phosphor preparation step is the most important and it's quality defines the "whiteness". The tunable yellow emission property of YAG:Ce phosphor may be improved by the incorporation of an additional codoping element. Ce, Gd codoped YAG phosphor nanopowder with an average grain size of 40 nm has been synthesized by a sol-gel method. Well-crystallized fine nanoparticles and the formation of the garnet phase have been obtained at 1000 degrees C. The chemical structure and morphology of YAG:Ce, Gd was studied.