Charles Humbert 8

Approximately half of Nigerian women with non-metastatic breast cancer undergo surgery, yet psychosocial factors influencing mastectomy receipt are poorly understood. This study aimed to understand barriers, facilitators, and patient attitudes toward mastectomy for breast cancer in Nigeria. Using a prospective, convergent mixed-methods study design, we disseminated a structured questionnaire (N=225) and conducted in-depth interviews (N=18) among women with non-metastatic breast cancer recommended for mastectomy at 3 academic Nigerian institutions. Logistic regression identified factors associated with mastectomy within 1year of diagnosis; interviews were analyzed using the framework method. Qualitative and quantitative themes were triangulated using a joint display. Median age was 48years (IQR 40,57); median tumor size was 6.6cm (IQR 4.4,10.1). One hundred patients (44%) underwent mastectomy, 97 within 1 year of diagnosis. Nineteen percent (n=42/224) had not heard of breast cancer before diagnosis; 37% (n=82/223) had not heard of mastectomy. Interview participants expressed negative emotions toward mastectomy. Of those who did not receive surgery, the most common reasons were cost (n=41/125, 33%), loss to follow-up (n=20/125, 16%), traditional medicine (n=13/125, 10%), death (n=12/125, 9.6%), and disease progression (n=9/125, 7.2%). In multivariable analysis, awareness of mastectomy (OR 4.10, 95% CI 1.64,10.7, p-value=0.003) was significantly associated with surgery receipt within 1year. This study identified patient factors related to mastectomy receipt, including education and awareness, financial burden, fear of surgery, anticipated body image changes, and concern about adverse social impacts. Public health education about breast cancer surgery, pre-mastectomy counseling/peer-support, and financial may facilitate mastectomy receipt.

Background/Objectives: Burn injuries pose a significant challenge due to tissue damage and impaired healing. Cell-based therapies offer promise by delivering therapeutic cells to the wound site. However, effective cell delivery remains a critical hurdle. This study investigates the potential of non-crosslinked hyaluronic acid (HA) as a simple, versatile carrier for delivering autologous keratinocytes and fibroblasts to treat early burn wounds. Methods: Primary keratinocytes and fibroblasts were isolated from uninjured adult skin. In addition, fibroblasts and adipose stem cells (ASC) from polydactyly and progenitor fibroblasts were used. Non-cross-linked HA Redensity 1® (RD1) solutions of varying concentrations were prepared and applied to various in vitro models. Cell viability, proliferation, migration, and collagen stimulation were assessed using standard assays. Additionally, cells were suspended in Redensity 1 and applied to an in vitro de-epidemalized dermis (DED) wound model to examine cell delivery and tissue reformation. Results: Preliminary data demonstrated the feasibility of using non-cross-linked HA RD1 gel as a cell carrier. RD1 gel enhanced cell viability, retention, migration, and collagen deposition. Histological analysis revealed improved cell adhesion and migration. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insight into the potential of non-cross-linked HA RD1 as a simple and effective delivery vehicle for cell therapies in early burn care. Successful translation of this approach could significantly improve clinical outcomes for burn patients.

Background: Worldwide, rickets had a significant impact on children and adolescents', growth, and development as well as their general health. The fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) gene, which encodes a secreted protein that is related to the fibroblast growth factors, is present in certain forms of rickets. This study aimed to assess the FGF 23 level among different types of rickets.Methods: In this observational study we included 64 children who were divided into four groups: hypophosphatemic rickets: 16 cases, vitamin D resistance: 16 cases, vitamin D deficiency: 16 cases, and normal: 16 cases. We measured parameters including age, weight, height, ionized serum calcium, total serum calcium, alkaline phosphatase, serum phosphorus, vitamin D, parathormone, serum creatinine, and serum FGF23 levels.Results: Ionized and total serum calcium, serum phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, vitamin D, parathormone, serum creatinine, and serum FGF23 levels showed highly significant differences (P-values < 0.0001). Compared to vitamin D deficiency, hypophosphatemic rickets displayed notably lower levels of serum phosphorus and parathormone. However, the hypophosphatemic rickets group demonstrated significantly higher levels of certain biomarkers in comparison to the vitamin D deficiency group. The prognostic performance of serum FGF23 levels indicated a high area under the curve, with a specificity of 50.0%, and a sensitivity of 93.8% using a cutoff value of 131.5 to identify hypophosphatemic rickets. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the potential of serum FGF23 levels as a diagnostic indicator for hypophosphatemic rickets

Abstract Ants communicate via an arsenal of different pheromones produced in a variety of exocrine glands. For example, ants release alarm pheromones in response to danger to alert their nestmates and to trigger behavioral alarm responses. Here we characterize the alarm pheromone and the alarm response of the clonal raider antOoceraea biroi, a species that is amenable to laboratory studies but for which no pheromones have been identified. During an alarm response, ants quickly become unsettled, leave their nest pile, and are sometimes initially attracted to the source of alarm, but ultimately move away from it. We find that the alarm pheromone is released from the head of the ant and identify the putative alarm pheromone as a blend of two compounds found in the head, 4-methyl-3-heptanone and 4-methyl-3-heptanol. These compounds are sufficient to induce alarm behavior alone and in combination. They elicit similar, though slightly different behavioral features of the alarm response, with 4-methyl-3-heptanone being immediately repulsive and 4-methyl-3-heptanol being initially attractive before causing ants to move away. The behavioral response to these compounds in combination is dose-dependent, with ants becoming unsettled and attracted to the source of alarm pheromone at low concentrations and repulsed at high concentrations. While 4-methyl-3-heptanone and 4-methyl-3-heptanol are known alarm pheromones in other more distantly related ant species, this is the first report of the chemical identity of a pheromone inO. biroi, and the first alarm pheromone identified in the genusOoceraea. Identification of a pheromone that triggers a robust, consistent, and conserved behavior, like the alarm pheromone, provides an avenue to dissect the behavioral and neuronal mechanisms underpinning chemical communication.

It took only 11 years for the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to increase from 3.8% to 25.2%. It is worth noting that, as a new thin-film solar cell technique, defect passivation at the interface is crucial for the PSCs. Decorating and passivating the interface between the perovskite and electron transport layer (ETL) is an effective way to suppress the recombination of carriers at the interface and improve the PCE of the device. In this work, several acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) type fused-ring organic semiconductors (FROS) with indacenodithiophene (IDT) or indacenodithienothiophene (IDDT) as the bridging donor moiety and 1,3-diethyl-2-thiobarbituric or 1,1-dicyromethylene-3-indanone as the strong electron-withdrawing units, were deposited on the SnO2 ETL to prepare efficient planar junction PSCs. The PCEs of the PSCs increased from 18.63% for the control device to 19.37%, 19.75%, and 19.32% after modification at the interface by three FROSs. Furthermore, impedance spectroscopy, steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra elucidated that the interface decorated by FROSs enhance not only the extraction of electrons but also the charge transportation at the interface between the perovskite and ETL. These results can provide significant insights in improving the perovskite/ETL interface and the photovoltaic performance of PSCs.

Lignin was simultaneously extracted and functionalized with non-native groups in one step from biomass. These groups were then used to increase lignin's reactivity towards phenolation in both acidic and basic conditions in order to improve its incorporation into materials.

We report an investigation of X-ray induced desorption of neutrals, cations and anions from CO ice. The desorption of neutral CO, by far the most abundant, is quantified and discussed within the context of its application to astrochemistry. The desorption of many different cations, including large cations up to the mass limit of the spectrometer, is observed. In contrast, the only desorbing anions detected are O- and C-. The desorption mechanisms of all these species are discussed with the aid of their photodesorption spectrum. The evolution of the X-ray absorption spectrum shows significant chemical modifications of the ice upon irradiation, which along with the desorption of large cations gives a new insight into X-ray induced photochemistry in CO ice.

Conformations, entanglements and dynamics in attractive polymer nanocomposites are investigated in this work by means of coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, for both weak and strong confinements, in the presence of nanoparticles (NPs) at NP volume fractions ϕ up to 60%. We show that the behavior of the apparent tube diameter dapp in such nanocomposites can be greatly different from nanocomposites with nonattractive interactions. We find that this effect originates, based on a mean field argument, from the geometric confinement length dgeo at strong confinement (large ϕ) and not from the bound polymer layer on NPs (interparticle distance ID <2Rg) as proposed recently based on experimental measurements. Close to the NP surface, the entangled polymer mobility is reduced in attractive nanocomposites but still faster than the NP mobility for volume fractions beyond 20%. Furthermore, entangled polymer dynamics is hindered dramatically by the strong confinement created by NPs. For the first time using simulations, we show that the entangled polymer conformation, characterized by the polymer radius of gyration Rg and form factor, remains basically unperturbed by the presence of NPs up to the highest volume fractions studied, in agreement with various experiments on attractive nanocomposites. As a side-result we demonstrate that the loose concept of ID can be made a microscopically well defined quantity using the mean pore size of the NP arrangement.