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[Display omitted] • Nonalternating preference yields carbonyl-functionalized polyethylene. • Pd catalyst with electron donating substituents affords a uniform carbonyl dispersion. • The unique polyethylene exhibits comparable tensile properties with conventional HDPE. • The incorporated carbonyls in polyethylene main chains impart photodegradability. • Ni/Pd complexes are versatile for generating both of polyketone and keto-polyethylene materials. Polyethylenes are currently the most prevalent synthetic polymers in the world, and the introduction of functional groups into polyethylene backbone can reduce problematic environmental persistence and enhance compatibility with other materials. This target can be addressed by transition-metal-catalyzed nonalternating copolymerization of ethylene with carbon monoxide, but it is generally impeded by the facile formation of alternating polyketones in kinetics. The reduction of carbonyl density in polyketones could weaken their inter-chain dipolar interaction, thus gradually approaching to polyethylene materials in term of crystalline and tensile properties. In this contribution, we communicate our continued efforts to investigate on the electronic and steric nature of Ni- and Pd-coordinated cationic [P,O] type catalysts, and they were used for nonalternating carbonylative copolymerization of ethylene, which resulted carbonyl functionalized polyethylenes with comparable molecular weight and desirable mechanistic property similar to those of commercial high-density polyethylene, and the incorporated carbonyls in polyethylene chains impart photodegradability. Notably, Pd complex 5 with an electron donating substituent on phosphine moiety yielded polyethylene products with a uniform dispersion of isolated carbonyls and a high molecular weight of ∼100 kg/mol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women with diabetes face a significantly elevated risk of developing depression. Clarifying the factors associated with depression is critical to designing more timely interventions for this vulnerable population. Purpose: This study was developed to examine the impact of Type D personality, diabetes-care-related role strain, and diabetes-related distress on depression in women with Type 2 diabetes. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 298 women aged 20–64 years who had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for over 6 months from three outpatient endocrine clinics in Taiwan. Demographic and disease characteristics and Type D personality (negative affectivity and social inhibition), diabetes-care-related role strain, and diabetes-related distress and depression status information were collected using self-reported questionnaires and medical records. The important factors of influence on depression were examined using hierarchical multiple regression. Results: On the basis of the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, age, negative affectivity, diabetes-care-related role strain, and diabetes-related distress were identified as significantly associated with depression, with negative affectivity explaining most (43.4%) of the variance in depression, followed by diabetes-care-related role strain and diabetes-related distress, which respectively explained 3% and 2.5% of the variance. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The negative affectivity associated with the Type D personality was shown to be more significantly associated with depression than diabetes-related psychosocial factors such as diabetes-related distress and diabetes-care-related role strain. Timely assessment of negative affectivity and the provision of brief mindfulness intervention to reduce negative affectivity may be useful in preventing depression in women with Type 2 diabetes, whereas addressing diabetes-related distress and diabetes-care-related role strain should not be neglected when providing comprehensive depression-preventing interventions to young women with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Rough set theory (RST) and directed acyclic graph support vector machines (DAGSVM) are two emerging techniques in dealing with classification problems. The RST approach is able to select important features and generate rules from data. The SVM technique is powerful in solving classification problems with high generalization ability by applying the structure risk minimization principle. However, one particular model cannot capture all data patterns easily. This investigation presents a hybrid RST and DAGSVM model (RSTDAGSVM) to exploit the unique strengths of both RST and SVM in analyzing the movements of exchange rates. In the proposed hybrid model, the RST approach is used to extract the rules of exchange rate changes; and the DAGSVM technique is employed to deal with situations that cannot be included in the RST model. In addition, an immune algorithm and tabu search (IA/TS) method is applied to select parameters of SVM models. Experimental results reveal that the developed model achieves more accurate prediction results than either the RST model or the DAGSVM model on its own. Thus, the presented RSTDAGSVM model is a promising alternative for analyzing exchange rates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Insulin-naive patients are often reluctant to receive insulin treatment, and even insulin-treated patients frequently have poor rates of adherence to their prescribed insulin injection regimes. Assessing attitudes toward insulin injection may help in the design of interventions that improve the insulin injection behaviors of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). The concept of decisional balance has been associated with behavior in many studies and may be useful in assessing the attitude of patients with T2DM toward insulin injection. Decisional balance for insulin injection (DBII) has not been widely assessed in patients with T2DM. Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop an insulin injection (DBII) scale that is valid for insulin-naive and insulin-treated patients and to test the psychometric characteristics of this scale based on the concept of decisional balance. Methods: This cross-sectional study administered an 18-item DBII scale, including pro and con subscales, to 95 insulin-naive and 237 insulin-treated patients in Taiwan. The decisional balance score was calculated as the mean score of the pro subscale minus the mean score of the con subscale. Construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis; concurrent validity was assessed by examining the association between the score of the DBII scale and the stages of behavioral change and of hemoglobin A1c for, respectively, insulin-naive patients and insulin-treated patients; and reliability was assessed using internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Results: A 13-item DBII scale supported by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis was developed. The stages of behavioral change and hemoglobin A1c levels were found to be significantly associated with the scores of decisional balance of the 13-item DBII scale for both insulin-naive and insulin-treated patients. The Cronbach's α ranged between.78 and.92. Conclusions: The 13-item DBII scale is appropriately short and possesses satisfactory validity and reliability for both insulin-naive and insulin-treated patients with T2DM. Healthcare providers may use this scale as a checklist to guide clinical discussions related to insulin therapy with both insulin-naive and insulin-treated patients with T2DM across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Pd catalysts are used for nonalternating copolymerization of ethylene with CO. • Alkyl substituents on phosphorus moiety exhibits 29.2 mol% extra C2 incorporation. • T m value of nonalternating polyketone was reduced to 162 °C. • Such Pd catalyst exhibits high thermally robust nature in this copolymerization. Production of polyketone realizes the direct conversion of cost effective and abundant olefin and carbon monoxide (CO) monomers. However, copolymerization of ethylene with CO shows a high tendency for the formation of strictly alternating structures, and they feature a high melting temperature (T m) of 260 °C that impedes the processing by using the conventional injection molding and extrusion. Nonalternating preference in such copolymerization is a very promising method to circumvent the processability issues. In this study, we present a series of phosphine-sulfonate Pd catalysts for nonalternating copolymerization of ethylene and CO, since rare study has investigated the electronic and steric nature systematically in such ligand platform in this field. The usage of dicyclohexyl substituents on phosphorus moiety exhibits unexpected nonalternating preference with up to 29.2 mol% extra ethylene incorporation, thus lowing the T m values to 162 °C. Notably, such alkyl substituted phosphine sulfonate Pd catalyst exhibits high thermally robust nature in this nonalternating copolymerization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Typical N -heterocyclic thiols can unexpectedly activate H 2 O 2 to produce •OH. • It's an unprecedented sulfenic-acid dependent •OH production. • The •OH production is moderate, long-lasting, and covers a broad pH range. • Free –SH group, electron-withdrawing N atom, and ortho -location are essential. The decomposition of H 2 O 2 to produce the highly-reactive hydroxyl radical (•OH) is one of most well-known pathways to generate •OH, which can be readily activated by transition metal ions and haloquinones, but rarely by N -heterocyclic thiol compounds. Here we found, unexpectedly, that DNA oxidative damage can be induced by H 2 O 2 together with 2-mercaptopyridine (PySH), a typical N -heterocyclic thiol compound widely-used in industry, agriculture, medicine and organic synthesis, which was found to be mainly due to production of •OH independent of transition metal ions. 2,2′-Dithiodipyridine, pyridine-2-sulfenic acid (PySOH), pyridine-2-sulfinic acid and pyridine-2-sulfonic acid were step-wisely produced during the reaction of PySH/H 2 O 2 , and the source and origin of the oxygen atoms inserted into these intermediates and products were found to be from H 2 O 2 by oxygen-18 isotope labeling technique coupled with ESI-Q-TOF-MS analysis. More importantly, among all the transient intermediates, PySOH was found to be the key one directly responsible for •OH production from PySH/H 2 O 2. Analogous results were observed with several PySH derivatives. This is the first report on an unprecedented sulfenic acid-dependent •OH production from the activation of H 2 O 2 by N -heterocyclic thiol compounds, which may have important chemical, biological and biomedical implications for future study of these widely-used compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shewanella algae is an emerging pathogen widely distributed in aquatic environment. Bacteremia is a major manifestation of S. algae infections, and there are increasing reports of antibiotic-resistant strains. However, little is known about the genomic characteristics of human bacteremic S. algae. Here, we report the results of the whole-genome sequencing of colistin-resistant S. algae TYL, a blood isolate. Chromosome-encoded pmrC associated with colistin resistance and blaOXA-55 gene intrinsic to S. algae was identified. Continuous surveillance for the emergence of S. algae is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevention of cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CSA-AKI) by statins remains controversial. Therefore, the present meta-analysis including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed to assess the effect of perioperative statin on CSA-AKI. Methods: Two reviewers independently searched for RCTs about perioperative statin for prevention of CSA-AKI. The primary endpoint was CSA-AKI. Relative risk was calculated between statin and placebo for preventing CSA-AKI using the random-effect model or fixedeffect model according to different heterogeneity. Results: Eight RCTs met inclusion criteria, including five studies with atorvastatin, two with rosuvastatin, and one with simvastatin. There were 1,603 patients receiving statin treatment and 1,601 with placebo. Perioperative statin therapy did not reduce the incidence of CSA-AKI (relative risk =1.17, 95% CI: 0.98-1.39, p=0.076). Furthermore, perioperative statin increased the risk of CSA-AKI in the subgroup analysis with clear definition of CSA-AKI and those with JADAD score >3. Perioperative rosuvastatin produced slightly significantly higher risk of AKI than atorvastatin therapy (p=0.070). Statin intervention both pre and post surgery slightly increased the risk of CSA-AKI versus preoperative statin therapy alone (p=0.040). Conclusions: Perioperative statin therapy might increase the risk of CSA-AKI after cardiac surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Shewanella algae has been recognized as an emerging human pathogen. However, not much is known about the mechanism of its pathogenesis and its adaptation to a special niche such as the hepatobiliary tract. Results: In this study, we isolated the S. algae ACCC strain from human bile and performed whole genome sequencing. S. algae ACCC consists of a circular 4,743,354-bp chromosome with a GC content of 53.08%, within 4080 protein coding sequences. The genome of strain ACCC contains a number of candidate genes which have been reported to be associated with bile adaption, including htpB, exbBD, wecA, galU, adeFGH and phoPQ regulon. Conclusions: Our results highlight the association of S. algae with a rare disease profile. Further studies are needed to shed light on the evolution of pathogenesis and the niche adaptation of S. algae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]