Pancreatic islet transplantation is the only curative, noninvasive treatment for type 1 diabetes mellitus; however, high rates of cell death in the immediate postimplantation period have limited the success of this procedure. Bilirubin, an endogenous antioxidant, can improve the survival of murine pancreatic allografts during hypoxic stress but has poor solubility in aqueous solutions. We hypot...

Most functional brain imaging studies use task-induced hemodynamic responses to infer underlying changes in neuronal activity. In addition to increases in cerebral blood flow and blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) signals, sustained negative responses are pervasive in functional imaging. The origin of negative responses and their relationship to neural activity remain poorly understood. T...

Unambiguous interpretation of changes in the BOLD signal is challenging because of the complex neurovascular coupling that translates changes in neuronal activity into the subsequent haemodynamic response. In particular, the neurophysiological origin of the negative BOLD response (NBR) remains incompletely understood. Here, we simultaneously recorded BOLD, EEG and cerebral blood flow (CBF) resp...

III To my mother and father IV ABSTRACT Biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) are currently viewed by the transportation sector as the most viable alternative fuels to replace petroleum-based fuels. The use of biodiesel has, however, been limited by the deteriorative effect of biodiesel on rubber parts in automobile fuel systems. This work therefore aimed at investigating the degradati...

In eukaryotes, aberrant expression of transposable elements (TEs) is detrimental to the host genome. Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) of ∼23 to 30 nucleotides bound to PIWI clade Argonaute proteins silence transposons in a manner that is strictly dependent on their sequence complementarity. Hence, a key goal in understanding piRNA pathways is to determine mechanisms that modulate piRNA sequences....

Thermoplastic elastomer of PA6/NBR reinforced by various nanoparticles have wide application in many industries. The properties of these materials depend on PA6, NBR, and nanoparticle amount and characteristics. In this study, the simultaneous effect of NBR and graphene nanoparticle content on mechanical, thermal properties, and morphology of PA6/NBR/Graphene nanocomposites investigated by Cent...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of early sensory cortex often measure stimulus-driven increases in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal. However, these positive responses are frequently accompanied by reductions in the BOLD signal in adjacent regions of cortex. Although this negative BOLD response (NBR) is thought to result from neuronal suppression, the prec...

OBJECTIVE To investigate associations between mouth breathing (MBr), nose breathing (NBr) and body posture classification and clinical variables in children and adolescents, by comparing patients with mouth breathing syndrome with a control group of similar age. METHODS This was an observational, analytical, controlled, cross-sectional study conducted at a university hospital. Children aged 5...

Habituation of the nociception-specific blink reflex (nBR) is reduced interictally in migraine patients. This could be related to the habituation deficit of evoked cortical responses, a reproducible abnormality in migraine which has a familial character, or to central trigeminal sensitization due to repeated attacks. We compared nBR habituation in healthy volunteers devoid of personal or family...