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People with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) often have psychological symptoms including depression and anxiety, which are commonly treated with anti-depression or anti-anxiety interventions. Psychological stress is a related symptom with different intervention targets that may also improve mental state, but this symptom is not well characterized in OSA. We therefore aimed to describe stress in relation to other psychological symptoms. We performed a prospective cross-sectional study of 103 people, 44 untreated OSA (mean ± s.d. age: 51.2 ± 13.9 years, female/male 13/31) and 57 healthy control participants (age: 46.3 ± 13.8 years, female/male 34/23). We measured stress (Perceived Stress Scale; PSS), excessive daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale; ESS), depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-9), and anxiety symptoms (General Anxiety Disorder; GAD-7). We compared group means with independent samples t-tests and calculated correlations between variables. Mean symptom levels were higher in OSA than control, including PSS (mean ± s.d.: OSA = 15.3 ± 6.9, control = 11.4 ± 5.5; P = 0.002), GAD-7 (OSA = 4.8 ± 5.0, control = 2.1 ± 3.9; P = 0.02), PHQ-9 (OSA = 6.9 ± 6.1, control = 2.6 ± 3.8; P = 0.003) and ESS (OSA = 8.1 ± 5.3, control = 5.0 ± 3.3; P = 0.03). Similar OSA-vs-control differences appeared in males, but females only showed significant differences in PHQ-9 and ESS, not PSS or GAD-7. PSS correlated strongly with GAD-7 and PHQ-9 across groups (R = 0.62–0.89), and moderately with ESS. Perceived stress is high in OSA, and closely related to anxiety and depressive symptoms. The findings support testing stress reduction in OSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) children, neurodevelopment occurs in the presence of HIV-infection, and even with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) the brain can be a reservoir for latent HIV. Consequently, patients often demonstrate long-term cognitive deficits and developmental delay, which may be reflected in altered functional brain activity. Our objective was to examine brain function in PHIV on cART by quantifying the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo). Further, we studied ALFF and ReHo changes with neuropsychological performance and measures of immune health including CD4 count and viral loads in the HIV-infected youths. We found higher ALFF and ReHo in cerebral white matter in the medial orbital lobe for PHIV (N = 11, age mean ± sd = 22.5 ± 2.9 years) compared to controls (N = 16, age = 22.5 ± 3.0 years), with age and gender as co-variates. Bilateral cerebral white matter showed increased spontaneous regional activity in PHIV compared to healthy controls. No brain regions showed lower ALFF or ReHo in PHIV compared to controls. Higher log10 viral load was associated with higher ALFF and ReHo in PHIV in bilateral cerebral white matter and right cerebral white matter respectively after masking the outcomes intrinsic to the brain regions that showed significantly higher ALFF and ReHo in the PHIV compared to the control. Reductions in social cognition and abstract thinking in PHIV were correlated with higher ALFF at the left cerebral white matter in the left medial orbital gyrus and higher ReHo at the right cerebral white matter in the PHIV patients. Although neuroinflammation and associated neuro repair were not directly measured, the findings support their potential role in PHIV impacting neurodevelopment and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blue-green algae bloom is of great concern globally since they adversely affect the water ecosystem and also drinking water treatment processes. This work investigated the removal of Microcystis aeruginosa ( M. aeruginosa) by combining the conventional coagulant polyaluminum chloride (PACl) with nano-FeO particles as a coagulant aid. The results showed that the addition of nano-FeO significantly improved the removal efficiency of M. aeruginosa by reducing the amount of PACl dosage and simultaneously hastening the sedimentation. At the M. aeruginosa density of an order of magnitude of 10, 10, and 10 pcs/mL, respectively, the corresponding PACl dose of 200, 20, and 2 mg/L and the mass ratio of PACl to nano-FeO of 4:1, the removal efficiency of M. aeruginosa could be increased by 33.0, 44.7, and 173.1 %, respectively. Compared to PACl, PACl combined with the nano-FeO as a coagulant aid had higher removal efficiency at a wider pH range. SEM images showed that nano-FeO first combined with PACl to form clusters and further generated the flocs with algae. Results from the laser particle analyzer further suggested that the floc size increased with the addition of nano-FeO. It was noted that the addition of nano-FeO led to aluminum species change after PACl hydrolyzed in the algae solution, from Al to Al and Al subsequently. As a coagulant aid, the nano-FeO, in conjunction with PACl, apparently provided nucleation sites for larger flocs to integrate with M. aeruginosa. In addition, increased floc density improved the removal of M. aeruginosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aimed to evaluate the effect of surfactants on the removal of aqueous nC aggregates by coagulation-filtration process and assess the acute toxicity of filtrates by Microtox test. Three surfactants including cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and Triton X-100 (TX100) were selected representing cationic, anionic, and nonionic types, respectively. Results showed that the change of physicochemical properties of nC associating with different types of surfactants determined nC's removal efficiency and acute toxicity. CTAB increased the number of large particles. It also changed the zeta potential of nC from negative to positive, leading to the low removal rates (17.3-50.2 %) when CTAB concentration was designed in the range of 0.03-1 g/L, and the filtrates showed acute toxicity to bioluminescent bacteria (inhibition rate > 80 %). On the contrary, TX100 obviously increased the proportion of small particles, and it is noteworthy that even less than 1 mg/L of nC (20 % of the initial concentration) with TX100 remaining in filtrates could evoke phototoxicity due to reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation under UV irradiation. Compared to CTAB and TX100, SDS exerted an effect on the removal process and toxicity of nC only when concentration was beyond the critical micelle concentration (CMC; 2.5 g/L). These findings collectively suggest that characteristics of nC are flexible and strongly dependent on surfactant modification, as a result of which these particles could potentially find their way through water treatment route and exert a potential toxicity risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood based biomaterials are widely researched and used in different biomedical applications including cell therapy, drug delivery, sealants etc. due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. Blood derived gels are successfully used in clinical studies due to the presence of fibrinogen and several platelet growth factors. In spite of their wide applications, it is challenging to use blood-based biomaterials due to their low mechanical stability, poor adhesive property and contamination risk. In this study, we used porcine plasma to form gel in presence of biodegradable synthetic crosslinkers. Mechanical strength of this plasma gel could be tailored by altering the amount of crosslinkers for any desired biomedical applications. These plasma gels, formed by the synthetic crosslinkers, were utilized as a drug delivery platform for wound healing due to their low cytotoxicity. A model drug release study with these plasma gels indicated slow and sustained release of the drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]