Janus gold nanoparticles (JPs) of ∼4 nm-diameter half functionalized with 1-hexanethiol as a hydrophobic capping ligand exhibit significantly higher interfacial activity, reproducibility and rheological response when the other half is functionalized with 1,2-mercaptopropanediol (JPs-MPD) than with 2-(2-mercaptoethoxy)ethanol (JPs-MEE), both acting as hydrophilic capping ligands. The interfacial...

OBJECTIVE We used multi-level modelling of sibling-pair data to disentangle the influence of proband-specific and more general family influences on maternal expressed emotion (MEE) toward children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD MEE was measured using the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) for 60 sibling pairs (aged 5 through 17 years) each comprisin...

Levosimendan is an inotropic and vasodilator drug, which is known to improve cardiac function in animal models of right ventricular (RV) failure. The effects of levosimendan on oxygen consumption and myocardial efficiency in the failing RV is unknown. We investigated the effects of levosimendan on RV function, myocardial oxygen consumption, myocardial external efficiency (MEE), and myocardial m...

We developed and evaluated a two-step PCR-based assay with universal primers and genus- or species-specific primers for the detection of the most prevalent bacterial etiologies of otitis media with effusion (OME) in children from Lebanese hospitals. These etiologies included Haemophilus, Streptococcus, and Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis, which were detected in middle-ear effusion (MEE) sam...

Cleft palate is one of the most common human birth defects and is associated with multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. Although mutations in the genes encoding transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) signaling molecules and interferon regulatory factor 6 (Irf6) have been identified as genetic risk factors for cleft palate, little is known about the relationship between TGFβ signaling...

During mammalian development, a pair of shelves fuses to form the secondary palate, a process that requires the adhesion of the medial edge epithelial tissue (MEE) of each shelf and the degeneration of the resulting medial epithelial seam (MES). It has been reported that epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) occurs during shelf fusion and is considered a fundamental process for MES degene...

We present a determination of the neutrino mass matrix which holds for values of the neutrinoless double beta decay effective mass mee larger than the neutrino mass differences. We find eight possible solutions and discuss for each one the corresponding neutrino mass eigenvalues and zero texture. A minimal structure of the perturbations to add to these zero textures to recover the full mass mat...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bias and precision of 46 methods published from 1953 to 2000 for estimating resting energy expenditure (REE) of thermally injured patients. METHODS Twenty-four adult patients with > or =20% body surface area burn admitted to a burn center who required specialized nutrition support and who had their REE measured via indirect calorimetry ...

BACKGROUND Myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2) and its coupling to contractile work are fundamentals of cardiac function and may be involved causally in the transition from compensated left ventricular hypertrophy to failure. Nevertheless, these processes have not been studied previously in patients with aortic valve stenosis (AS). METHODS AND RESULTS Participants underwent 11C-acetate posit...

BACKGROUND Otitis media with effusion (OME) or middle ear effusion (MEE) is a common cause of hearing difficulty in children. MEE must be detected early and managed properly to prevent conductive hearing loss in children. It was aimed to compare results of laser myringotomy and conventional myringotomy in terms of hearing improvement, recurrence of MEE and time to put ventilation tube. METHOD...