HCM patients with an ICD have a significant cardiovascular mortality and are exposed to frequent inappropriate shocks and implant complications. These data suggest that new strategies are required to improve patient selection for ICDs and to prevent disease progression in those that receive a device.

Psychostimulants and nicotine are the most widely abused drugs with a detrimental impact on public health globally. While the long-term neurobehavioral deficits and synaptic perturbations are well documented with chronic use of methamphetamine, cocaine, and nicotine, emerging human and experimental studies also suggest an increasing incidence of neurovascular complications associated with drug abuse. Short-or long-term administration of psychostimulants or nicotine is known to disrupt blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity/function, thus leading to an increased risk of brain edema and neuroinflammation. Various pathophysiological mechanisms have been proposed to underlie drug abuse-induced BBB dysfunction suggesting a central and unifying role for oxidative stress in BBB endothelium and perivascular cells. This review discusses drug-specific effects of methamphetamine, cocaine, and tobacco smoking on brain microvascular crisis and provides critical assessment of oxidative stress-dependent molecular pathways focal to the global compromise of BBB. Additionally, given the increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) encephalitis in drug abusers, we have summarized the synergistic pathological impact of psychostimulants and HIV infection on BBB integrity with an emphasis on unifying role of endothelial oxidative stress. This mechanistic framework would guide further investigations on specific molecular pathways to accelerate therapeutic approaches for the prevention of neurovascular deficits by drugs of abuse.

The growth of high quality epitaxial beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) using a compound source by molecular beam epitaxy has been demonstrated on c-plane sapphire (Al2O3) substrates. The compound source provides oxidized gallium molecules in addition to oxygen when heated from an iridium crucible in a high temperature effusion cell enabling a lower heat of formation for the growth of Ga2O3, resulting in a more efficient growth process. This source also enabled the growth of crystalline β-Ga2O3 without the need for additional oxygen. The influence of the substrate temperatures on the crystal structure and quality, chemical bonding, surface morphology, and optical properties has been systematically evaluated by x-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and UV-vis spectroscopy. Under optimized growth conditions, all films exhibited pure 2¯01  oriented β-Ga2O3 thin films with six-fold rotational symmetry when grown on a sapphire substrate. The thin films demonstrated significant absorption in the deep-ultraviolet (UV) region with an optical bandgap around 5.0 eV and a refractive index of 1.9. A deep-UV photodetector fabricated on the high quality β-Ga2O3 thin film exhibits high resistance and small dark current (4.25 nA) with expected photoresponse for 254 nm UV light irradiation suggesting that the material grown using the compound source is a potential candidate for deep-ultraviolet photodetectors.

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Several classes of drugs are available to treat different types of cancer. Currently, researchers are paying significant attention to the development of drugs at the nanoscale level to increase their target specificity and to reduce their concentrations. Nanotechnology is a promising and growing field with multiple subdisciplines, such as nanostructures, nanomaterials, and nanoparticles. These materials have gained prominence in science due to their size, shape, and potential efficacy. Nanomedicine is an important field involving the use of various types of nanoparticles to treat cancer and cancerous cells. Synthesis of nanoparticles targeting biological pathways has become tremendously prominent due to the higher efficacy and fewer side effects of nanodrugs compared to other commercial cancer drugs. In this review, different medicinal plants and their active compounds, as well as green-synthesized metallic nanoparticles from medicinal plants, are discussed in relation to their anticancer activities.

Most VAs are monomorphic ventricular tachycardias triggered by late-coupled PVCs. They are frequently terminated by ATP, but ATP does not reduce the frequency of ICD shocks. Younger HCM patients have more rapid VAs, which may explain the peak of sudden cardiac death in early adulthood. The circadian periodicity is different from that observed in ischaemic heart disease, and is likely to relate to the distinct character of the arrhythmogenic substrate in HCM and its modulators.

Odorous air emissions from confined animal feeding operation are causing public nuisance. Accordingly, different odor mitigation technologies were designed, developed, and evaluated in the last decades to reduce odor emissions. The purpose of this paper is to review the previous research related to odor mitigation from swine rearing facilities and provide information on the effectiveness of currently available and emerging odor mitigation technologies. This review focused on odor mitigation approaches at different stages of swine production, manure storage and handling, and land application. Several odor mitigation technologies have been suggested and evaluated including diet manipulation, solid-liquid separation, additives, aeration, anaerobic digestion, lagoon covers, biofilters, acid scrubbing, shelterbelts, and manure injection. The effectiveness of these mitigation technologies varied widely; however, diet manipulation, biofilters, shelterbelts, and direct injection of manure have shown advantages over other odor mitigation methods. Diet manipulation is the first line of defense for odor mitigation. Biofilters and shelterbelts provide solutions for treating the odorous air before releasing to atmosphere, whereas additives, lagoon covers, aeration, and anaerobic digestion reduce or control odor emissions during manure storage and treatment. Direct injection of manure provides ultimate disposal solution and can reduce odor significantly compared to surface application.

Dairy manure is an abundant waste in dairy farming and poses handling, storage and disposal challenges. With poor management, dairy manure produces odour, ammonia and releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a means to produce renewable energy and to reduce environmental impacts resulting from improper management of dairy manure. Dairy manure AD suffers from low biogas production per unit mass, hence it is costly per unit volume. To improve biogas production per unit volume, anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manure is one of the methods used to enhance biogas production. This article reviews various approaches and challenges of co-digestion to enhance biogas production and methane yield that have been used in the last decade. Substrate selection and prediction of biogas production based on chemical oxygen demand are the main areas of focus. Process inhibition by co-substrates is also examined.

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