Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria

About: Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Adipose tissue. The organization has 528 authors who have published 579 publications receiving 18688 citations.

Van der Waals epitaxial MOCVD-growth of (BixSb1−x)2Te3 (0 < x < 1) films

Abstract: Epitaxial (BixSb1−x)2Te3 films with (0 < x < 1) were grown by the metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) process at 400 °C using the tailor-made precursors Et2Te2, i-Pr3Sb and Et3Bi. The films grown on Al2O3(0001) substrates show a very smooth surface morphology as shown by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), while those grown on Si(100) are rather polycrystalline. The chemical composition of the crystalline films (x-ray powder diffraction (XRD)) was investigated by energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the in-plane transport properties were measured, and a strong dependency from the bismuth content was found, which allows the tuning of the carrier concentration and mobility in a wide range.

Comparison of MR T1 and T2 mapping parameters to characterize myocardial and skeletal muscle involvement in systemic idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM).

Abstract: To compare the performance of magnetic resonance (MR) relaxometry parameters to discriminate myocardial and skeletal muscle inflammation in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) patients from healthy controls. For this retrospective case-control study, 20 consecutive IIM patients (54 ± 18 years, 11 females) with cardiac involvement (troponin level > 50 ng/l) and 20 healthy controls (47 ± 12 years, 9 females) were included. All patients without cardiac MR imaging < 2 weeks prior to the laboratory testings were excluded. T1/T2 relaxation times, as well as T1-derived extracellular volume (ECV), relative tissue T1 shortening ΔT1 = (native T1tissue-post contrast T1tissue)/native T1tissue), and enhancement fraction EHF = (native T1tissue-post contrast T1tissue)/(native T1blood-post contrast T1blood), were compared using Mann-Whitney U test and ROC analysis. All measured MR relaxometry parameters significantly discriminated IIM patients and healthy controls, except T2 in skeletal muscles and ECV in the myocardium. In skeletal muscles, post contrast T1 and T1-derived parameters showed the best performance to discriminate IIM patients from healthy controls (AUC = 0.98 for post contrast T1 and AUC 0.94–0.97 for T1-derived parameters). Inversely, in the myocardium, native T1 and T2 showed better diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.89) than post contrast T1 (AUC = 0.76), ECV (AUC = 0.58), ΔT1 (AUC = 0.80) and EHF (0.82). MR relaxometry parameters applied to the myocardium and skeletal muscles might be useful to separate IIM patients from healthy controls. However, different tissue composition and vascularization should be taken into account for their interpretation. ΔT1 and EHF may be simple alternatives to ECV in highly vascularized tissues such as the myocardium. • MR relaxometry parameters applied to the myocardium and skeletal muscles are highly useful to separate IIM patients from healthy controls. • Different tissue composition and vascularization should be taken into account for T1 and T2 mapping parameter interpretation. • ΔT1 and EHF may be simple alternatives to ECV in highly vascularized tissues such as the myocardium.

Protein S Heerlen mutation heterozygosity is associated with venous thrombosis risk

Abstract: Hereditary Protein S (PS) deficiency is a rare coagulation disorder associated with an increased risk of venous thrombosis (VT). The PS Heerlen (PSH) mutation is a rare S501P mutation that was initially considered to be a neutral polymorphism. However, it has been later shown that PSH has a reduced half-life in vivo which may explain the association of PSH heterozygosity with mildly reduced levels of plasma free PS (FPS). Whether the risk of VT is increased in PSH carriers remains unknown. We analyzed the association of PSH (rs121918472 A/G) with VT in 4,173 VT patients and 5,970 healthy individuals from four independent case-control studies. Quantitative determination of FPS levels was performed in a subsample of 1257 VT patients. In the investigated populations, the AG genotype was associated with an increased VT risk of 6.57 [4.06–10.64] (p = 1.73 10−14). In VT patients in whom PS deficiency was excluded, plasma FPS levels were significantly lower in individuals with PSH when compared to those without [72 + 13 vs 91 + 21 UI/dL; p = 1.86 10−6, mean + SD for PSH carriers (n = 21) or controls (n = 1236) respectively]. We provide strong evidence that the rare PSH variant is associated with VT in unselected individuals.

A systems-approach reveals human nestin is an endothelial-enriched, angiogenesis-independent intermediate filament protein.

Abstract: The intermediate filament protein nestin is expressed during embryonic development, but considered largely restricted to areas of regeneration in the adult. Here, we perform a body-wide transcriptome and protein-profiling analysis to reveal that nestin is constitutively, and highly-selectively, expressed in adult human endothelial cells (EC), independent of proliferative status. Correspondingly, we demonstrate that it is not a marker for tumour EC in multiple malignancy types. Imaging of EC from different vascular beds reveals nestin subcellular distribution is shear-modulated. siRNA inhibition of nestin increases EC proliferation, and nestin expression is reduced in atherosclerotic plaque neovessels. eQTL analysis reveals an association between SNPs linked to cardiovascular disease and reduced aortic EC nestin mRNA expression. Our study challenges the dogma that nestin is a marker of proliferation, and provides insight into its regulation and function in EC. Furthermore, our systems-based approach can be applied to investigate body-wide expression profiles of any candidate protein.