BACKGROUND & AIMS Plasma selenium concentration and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity are commonly used as markers of selenium nutritional status. However, plasma selenium concentrations fall independently of selenium status during the acute phase response and GPx is analytically problematic. The assay for erythrocyte selenium is robust and concentrations are unaffected by the systemic infl...

Selenium-containing proteins (e.g., glutathione peroxidases) are important antioxidants in neuronal defense against oxidative stress. In this study, the production of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques in the brain of the Tg2576 transgenic mice was investigated under dietary selenium-deficient conditions. The 16-week-old mice were fed a selenium-deficient diet (0.004 μg-selenium g(-1)-diet) or a selenium-a...

Abstract The intrinsic flexibility, solution processability, and optoelectronic properties of semiconducting conjugated polymers make them ideal candidates for use in a wide range next-generation electronic devices. A virtually unlimited chemical design space has led to diverse polymeric architectures made from combinations smaller molecular building blocks with desirable functionalities. Of th...

Introduction Research efforts have identified groups of people with low selenium intakes and presumed selenium deficiency based on low blood selenium levels. Inhabitants of New Zealand [1], Finland [2], and China [3] often have low blood selenium. Individuals with therapeutic diets low in selenium [4], people undergoing parenteral administration [5] and alcoholics with cirrhosis [6] can also be...

Nanoscale transistors employing an individual semiconducting carbon nanotube as the channel hold great potential for logic circuits with large integration densities that can be manufactured on glass or plastic substrates. Carbon nanotubes are usually produced as a mixture of semiconducting and metallic nanotubes. Since only semiconducting nanotubes yield transistors, the metallic nanotubes are ...

Selenium is an essential nutrient for animals, microorganisms and some other eukaryotes. Although selenium has not been demonstrated to be essential in vascular plants, the ability of some plants to accumulate and transform selenium into bioactive compounds has important implications for human nutrition and health, and for the environment. Selenium-accumulating plants provide unique tools to he...

An experiment was conducted to compare the effect of selenium sources on performance, Se incorporation into certain poultry tissues (blood, liver and breast muscle) and eggs, hatchability, glutathione peroxidase activities in tissues and eggs in broiler breeder. Broiler breeder hens were allocated to six diet treatments factorially arranged with three selenium sources (Sodium selenite, Selenium...

Colonization of the gastrointestinal tract and composition of the microbiota may be influenced by components of the diet, including trace elements. To understand how selenium regulates the intestinal microflora, we used high-throughput sequencing to examine the composition of gut microbiota of mice maintained on selenium-deficient, selenium-sufficient, and selenium-enriched diets. The microbiot...

Graphene nanoribbons are the counterpart of carbon nanotubes in graphene-based nanoelectronics. We investigate the electronic properties of chemically modified ribbons by means of density functional theory. We observe that chemical modifications of zigzag ribbons can break the spin degeneracy. This promotes the onset of a semiconducting-metal transition, or of a half-semiconducting state, with ...