Search results for "JUNCTION"

Structure of the Blood–Brain Barrier and Its Role in the Transport of Amino Acids

2005

Brain capillary endothelial cells form the blood-brain barrier (BBB). They are connected by extensive tight junctions, and are polarized into luminal (blood-facing) and abluminal (brain-facing) plasma membrane domains. The polar distribution of transport proteins mediates amino acid (AA) homeostasis in the brain. The existence of two facilitative transporters for neutral amino acids (NAAs) on both membranes provides the brain access to essential AAs. Four Na(+)-dependent transporters of NAA exist in the abluminal membranes of the BBB. Together these systems have the capability to actively transfer every naturally occurring NAA from the extracellular fluid (ECF) to endothelial cells and from…

Possible links between intestinal permeablity and food processing: a potential therapeutic niche for glutamine

2010

Increased intestinal permeability is a likely cause of various pathologies, such as allergies and metabolic or even cardiovascular disturbances. Intestinal permeability is found in many severe clinical situations and in common disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome. In these conditions, substances that are normally unable to cross the epithelial barrier gain access to the systemic circulation. To illustrate the potential harmfulness of leaky gut, we present an argument based on examples linked to protein or lipid glycation induced by modern food processing. Increased intestinal permeability should be largely improved by dietary addition of compounds, such as glutamine or curcumin, which…

Enhanced efficiency in plastic planar heterojunction solar cells by AuNPs positioned at donor-acceptor interfaces

2018

A new class of copolymers containing oligothiophene moieties with different length and fullerene units have been designed and prepared by an easy and inexpensive one-step synthetic approach. The incorporation of small quantities of these copolymers into bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells with donor regioregular polythiophene (P3HT) and acceptor fullerene derivate (PCBM) results in a good control of the phase separation process without further affecting the BHJ optoelectronic properties. Indeed, these copolymers allow modulating under thermal annealing the growth of domains whose size depends on the length of the copolymer repetitive units. Domain size on the same length scale of the P3HT…

Gesteigerte Expression des Tunnelproteins Connexin43 in der obstruierten Rattenblase - eine mögliche Ursache obstruktionsbedingter Blasenhyperaktivit…

2002

Fragestellung: Blasenhyperaktivitat ist ein haufiges und belastendes Symptom der Blasenauslassobstruktion und persistiert oft auch nach effektiver Deobstruierung. Gap junctions werden schon langer als mogliche Ursache von Blasenhyperaktivitat diskutiert. Wir untersuchten die regionale Verteilung des Gap-junction-Proteins Connexin43 in obstruierten und nicht obstruierten Rattenblasen. Material und Methode: Durch partielle Ligatur der Urethra wurde eine Obstruktion bei weiblichen Ratten erzeugt. Nach 6 Wochen wurden die Blasen entnommen und fur den molekularbiologischen Nachweis von Connexin43-mRNS durch kompetitive RT-PCR oder die immunhistochemische Detektion von Connexin43-Protein weiterve…

2020

This study aimed to explore the acute effects of static stretching on the musculotendinous properties of two hamstring muscles. Twelve male volunteers underwent two testing sessions. One session was dedicated to the evaluation of the semitendinosus muscle before (PRE) and after (POST) static stretching (five sets of 30-s stretching), and the other session similarly explored the long head of biceps femoris muscle. In addition to the displacement of the myotendinous junction (MTJ), passive torque and maximal voluntary isometric torque (MVIT) were evaluated. MVIT (−8.3 ± 10.2%, p = 0.0036, d = 0.497) and passive torque (−28.4 ± 16.9%, p = 0.0003, d = 1.017) were significantly decreased POST st…

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients (pts) with advanced gastric cancer/gastroesophageal junction cancer (GC/GEJC) or esophageal adenoc…

2021

4066 Background: CheckMate 649 (NCT02872116) is a randomized, open label phase 3 study in first line (1L) GC/GEJC/EAC. Prespecified interim results showed statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) for N+C vs C in all randomized pts and pts whose tumors expressed programmed death-ligand 1 combined positive score (CPS) ≥ 5. We present interim HRQOL results for CPS ≥ 5 pts, included as exploratory in the study. Methods: HRQOL was assessed using EQ-5D-3L (EQ-5D) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Gastric Cancer (FACT-Ga). Assessments were performed at baseline (BL), every 6 weeks during treatment, and during follow-up. Change fr…

Checkmate 577:Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a randomized, double-blind phase III study of nivolumab (NIVO) versus placebo (PBO) as adjuva…

2021

167 Background: NIVO is the first adjuvant therapy to provide a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free survival (DFS) versus PBO in resected EC/GEJC following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy as demonstrated by CheckMate 577. NIVO was well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile. This analysis provides additional information on the exploratory HRQoL endpoints in this clinical trial. Methods: The effect of NIVO versus PBO on HRQoL, including general and disease-related symptoms, functioning, disease burden, and overall QoL, was assessed using FACT-E and EQ-5D-3L patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaires administered at baseline (BL), every 4 wee…

Metallization of Si heterojunction solar cell by Cu electroplating

2018

In response to recent climate change, many renewable energy solutions have acquired great importance; in fact, the need of sustainable development is increasing and the use of renewable energy, such as solar energy, can be applied to many industrial and consumer applications. Photovoltaic systems, which are made up of solar cells, are used for electrical vehicle charging stations and to supply remote areas not connected to the power distribution network; moreover, solar energy is widely used as a primary or secondary source of domestic electric power. In this scenario, the increasing in efficiency, and the cost reduction of solar cells, becomes a priority in the diffusion of PV systems for …

Blue-violet heterojunction LEDs based on hydrothermally synthesized ZnO nanorods

2016

Zinc oxide nanorods have great potential for the realization of high efficiency heterostructure LEDs based on p-doped GaN. Well-aligned vertical nanorods are desirable to enhance the LED outcoupling performances due to a better confinement of the light [1]. However, due to the lack of reproducible p-type ZnO, a p-GaN substrate is still needed. This work reports on the fabrication of n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction LEDs based on vertical ZnO nanorods grown by hydrothermal method. The chemical reaction in the hydrothermal growth of ZnO is based on the decomposition of zinc nitrate, (Zn(NO3)2) with resulting Zn2+ ions reacting with the hydroxyl ions obtained by the thermal degradation of hexamethyl…

Photoelectrochemical Characterization of Ta/Ta2O5/Polypyrrole Heterojunctions

2009

A photodeposition of polypyrrole on anodic tantalum oxide thin films was performed in both organic and aqueous media. Pyrrole was photo-oxidised on insulating tantalum oxide by irradiating the electrode with light of suitable energy. Tantalum/ tantalum oxide/ polypyrrole heterojunctions were then characterized by means of photocurrent spectroscopy. The comparison between the photoelectrochemical response of the heterojunctions fabricated in organic and aqueous media, shows that the solvent used for the photodeposition of polypyrrole influences the location of the inversion potential. This result can be attributed to the different structure of polypyrrole films, which strongly depends on the…