The cold-induced factor CBF3 mediates root stem cell activity, regeneration, and developmental responses to cold.
Plant growth and development involve the specification and regeneration of stem cell niches (SCNs). Although plants are exposed to disparate environmental conditions, how environmental cues affect developmental programs and stem cells is not well understood. Root stem cells are accommodated in meristems in SCNs around the quiescent center (QC), which maintains their activity. Using a combination of genetics and confocal microscopy to trace morphological defects and correlate them with changes in gene expression and protein levels, we show that the cold-induced transcription factor (TF) C-REPEAT BINDING FACTOR 3 (CBF3), which has previously been associated with cold acclimation, regulates root development, stem cell activity, and regeneration. CBF3 is integrated into the SHORT-ROOT (SHR) regulatory network, forming a feedback loop that maintains SHR expression. CBF3 is primarily expressed in the root endodermis, whereas the CBF3 protein is localized to other meristematic tissues, including root SCNs. Complementation of cbf3-1 using a wild-type CBF3 gene and a CBF3 fusion with reduced mobility show that CBF3 movement capacity is required for SCN patterning and regulates root growth. Notably, cold induces CBF3, affecting QC activity. Furthermore, exposure to moderate cold around 10°C-12°C promotes root regeneration and QC respecification in a CBF3-dependent manner during the recuperation period. By contrast, CBF3 does not appear to regulate stem cell survival, which has been associated with recuperation from more acute cold (∼4°C). We propose a role for CBF3 in mediating the molecular interrelationships among the cold response, stem cell activity, and development.


A Palladium- and Copper-Catalyzed Synthesis of Dihydro[1,2-b]indenoindole-9-ol and Benzofuro[3,2-b]indolines: Metal-Controlled Intramolecular C-C and C-O Bond-Forming Reactions.
A palladium- and copper-catalyzed synthesis of dihydro[1,2-b]indenoindole-9-ol and benzofuro[3,2-b]indolines has been developed, whereby the same starting material is employed for the synthesis of both heterocyclic scaffolds and the selectivity of the product is controlled by switching the choice of metal. Salient features of these cascade reactions include wide-ranging functional group tolerance, simple reaction conditions, and moderate to high yields.


Human TEF-5 is preferentially expressed in placenta and binds to multiple functional elements of the human chorionic somatomammotropin-B gene enhancer.
We report the cloning of a cDNA encoding the human transcription factor hTEF-5, containing the TEA/ATTS DNA binding domain and related to the TEF family of transcription factors. hTEF-5 is expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscle, but the strongest expression is observed in the placenta and in placenta-derived JEG-3 choriocarcinoma cells. In correlation with its placental expression, we show that hTEF-5 binds to several functional enhansons of the human chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS)-B gene enhancer. We define a novel functional element in this enhancer comprising tandemly repeated sites to which hTEF-5 binds cooperatively. In the corresponding region of the hCS-A enhancer, which is known to be inactive, this element is inactivated by a naturally occurring single base mutation that disrupts hTEF-5 binding. We further show that the binding of the previously described placental protein f/chorionic somatomammotropin enhancer factor-1 to TEF-binding sites is disrupted by monoclonal antibodies directed against the TEA domain and that this factor is a proteolytic degradation product of the TEF factors. These results strongly suggest that hTEF-5 regulates the activity of the hCS-B gene enhancer.


A Single-Chip Full-Duplex High Speed Transceiver for Multi-Site Stimulating and Recording Neural Implants.
We present a novel, fully-integrated, low-power full-duplex transceiver (FDT) to support high-density and bidirectional neural interfacing applications (high-channel count stimulating and recording) with asymmetric data rates: higher rates are required for recording (uplink signals) than stimulation (downlink signals). The transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) share a single antenna to reduce implant size and complexity. The TX uses impulse radio ultra-wide band (IR-UWB) based on an edge combining approach, and the RX uses a novel 2.4-GHz on-off keying (OOK) receiver. Proper isolation (>20 dB) between the TX and RX path is implemented 1) by shaping the transmitted pulses to fall within the unregulated UWB spectrum (3.1-7 GHz), and 2) by space-efficient filtering (avoiding a circulator or diplexer) of the downlink OOK spectrum in the RX low-noise amplifier. The UWB 3.1-7 GHz transmitter can use either OOK or binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation schemes. The proposed FDT provides dual band 500-Mbps TX uplink data rate and 100 Mbps RX downlink data rate, and it is fully integrated into standard TSMC 0.18- μm CMOS within a total size of 0.8 mm(2). The total measured power consumption is 10.4 mW in full duplex mode (5 mW at 100 Mbps for RX, and 5.4 mW at 500 Mbps or 10.8 pJ/bit for TX). Additionally, a 3-coil inductive link along with on-chip power management circuits allows to powering up the implantable transceiver wirelessly by delivering 25 mW extracted from a 13.56-MHz carrier signal, at a total efficiency of 41.6%.


High-Resolution Laryngeal US: Imaging Technique, Normal Anatomy, and Spectrum of Disease.
Although US is one of the most used modalities for head and neck imaging, its use in the diagnosis of laryngeal abnormalities is much less widespread. The standard assessment of laryngeal abnormalities currently involves direct laryngoscopy and cross-sectional imaging (either CT or MRI) but rarely US. US is readily available, noninvasive, and radiation free, and it allows real-time imaging (with video for dynamic assessment), higher resolution than that of cross-sectional imaging, and the performance of targeted fine needle aspiration cytology or biopsy. This modality, particularly with the advent of high-resolution US, has been found to be at least comparable to CT or MRI for diagnosis of malignant lesions and benign abnormalities such as vocal nodules, polyps, cysts, and Reinke edema. Furthermore, it has been found to be more sensitive for diagnosis of abnormalities such as small glottic tumors, and its dynamic capability can be used to identify functional abnormalities such as vocal cord palsy. The authors outline the technique of laryngeal US, which includes strategies to avoid calcified laryngeal cartilage by imaging through the thyrohyoid and cricothyroid membranes with a five-sweep strategy supplemented by cine film of the technique. They also provide US images of common laryngeal abnormalities such as tumors with and without extralaryngeal extension; vallecular, thyroglossal, and vocal cord cysts; laryngeal mucoceles; and vocal cord palsy. Online supplemental material is available for this article. ©RSNA, 2020.


Identification of differentially expressed genes induced by transient ischemic stroke.
We have used a rat model of focal cerebral ischemia to investigate changes in gene expression that occur during stroke. To monitor these changes, we employed representational difference analysis-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total of 128 unique gene fragments were isolated, and we selected 13 of these for quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis. Of these 13 genes, we found seven that were differentially expressed. Four of these genes have not previously been implicated in stroke, and include neuronal activity regulated pentraxin (Narp), cysteine rich protein 61 (Cyr61), Bcl-2 binding protein BIS (Bcl-2-interacting death suppressor), and lectin-like ox-LDL receptor (LOX-1). We demonstrated differential expression of each gene by quantitative PCR analysis, and in the case of LOX-1, we further confirmed differential expression by in situ hybridization. LOX-1 expression is induced greater than ten fold at the core lesion site, and is essentially localized to the ipsilateral half of the brain. LOX-1 appears to be expressed in a non-neuronal cell type, and it does not appear to be expressed in vascular endothelial cells within the brain. This suggests that LOX-1 may serve a novel function in the brain.


Evaluation of Endod (Phytolacca dodecandra: Phytolaccaceae) as a Larvicide Against Anopheles arabiensis, the Principal Vector of Malaria in Ethiopia.
Malaria control methods rely mostly on adult mosquito control using insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual spraying with insecticides. Plants such as endod (Phytolacca dodecandra) can potentially be used for the control of mosquito larvae as a supplement to adult control methods. Following the discovery of endod, a molluscicide plant, more than 5 decades ago in Ethiopia, subsequent studies have shown that its potency can further be increased by simple procedures such as aging endod berry powder in water. This study was conducted to evaluate the killing effect of fresh and aged endod solution against 4th-stage larvae of Anopheles arabiensis. Laboratory-reared An. arabiensis larvae exposed to different concentrations of endod preparation using distilled or spring water had 50% lethal concentration (LC(50)) = 49.6 ppm and 90% lethal concentration (LC(90)) = 234 ppm for fresh and LC(50) = 36.4 ppm and LC(90) = 115.7 ppm for the aged endod solution in distilled water against the laboratory population. Against field-collected larvae of the same species, aged preparations in habitat water resulted in higher LC(50) (472.7 ppm) and LC(90) (691 ppm) values, with only a slight improvement over fresh preparations in habitat water (LC(50) = 456.2 ppm; LC(90) = 896.1 ppm). In general, although aged preparations of endod required lower concentrations than fresh to kill at least 90% of the larvae, these concentrations were much higher (12-70×) than that required for schistosome-transmitting snails.


Optical transitions in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes.
We report vertical electronic transitions of 20 metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes calculated as band energy differences from Kohn-Sham density functional theory. Our first-order transitions (E11) calculated with hybrid functionals (containing a portion of exact exchange) are in very good agreement with available experimental data. Recently, we have reported similar agreement between experiment and theory for semiconducting tubes. We find that the trigonal warping splitting in the band structure of metallic tubes is about 1.5 to 2 times larger than that reported previously.


Seizure-like phenomena and propofol: a systematic review.
Data on seizure-like phenomena (SLP) in patients receiving propofol were systematically reviewed. Reports had to provide detailed information on SLP in individual patients who received propofol. Phenomena were classified according to the time point of their occurrence during anesthesia or sedation (induction, maintenance, emergence, delayed [>30 minutes after emergence]) and their clinical presentation (generalized tonic-clonic seizures, focal motor seizures, events presented as increased tone with twitching and rhythmic movements not perceived as generalized tonic-clonic seizures, opisthotonos, involuntary movements). In 70 patients without epilepsy, SLP happened during induction in 24 (34%), during maintenance in two (3%), during emergence in 28 (40%), and was delayed in 16 (23%). Most frequent clinical presentations of SLP were generalized tonic-clonic seizures in 30 patients (43%), events presented as increased tone with twitching and rhythmic movements not perceived as generalized tonic-clonic seizures in 20 (36%), and involuntary movements in 11 (16%). Of 11 patients with epilepsy, seven (64%) had generalized tonic-clonic seizure during emergence. Of all 81 patients, 26 (32%) only had an EEG, and 12 (15%) only a neurologic consultation. SLP may happen in patients with or without epilepsy receiving propofol. The time point of the occurrence of SLP suggests that a change in cerebral concentration of propofol may be causal. To confirm this hypothesis, to estimate the prevalence of propofol-related SLP, and to identify patients at risk, data of higher quality are needed.


Resection of Septal Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma and Primary Reconstruction of the Surgical Defect via Open Rhinoplasty.
Adenoid cystic carcinoma is one of the most common minor salivary gland malignancies of the head and neck region. However, adenoid cystic carcinoma of the nasal septum is extremely rare. The authors herein report a case of a septal adenoid cystic carcinoma in a 68-year-old man who complained of nasal bleeding and nasal obstruction for several months. Diagnostic nasal endoscopy revealed a protruding mass arising from the anterosuperior part of the nasal septum. The tumor was removed with a safety margin using the open rhinoplasty approach and primary reconstruction of the surgical defect was performed using septal cartilage. Histopathology indicated an adenoid cystic carcinoma with cribriform pattern. Two years postoperatively, there was no evidence of recurrence, the functional and cosmetic results were good, and the patient was satisfied with the treatment outcome.


Serum gonadotrophins and follicular development in immature rats after early androgen administration.
Follicular development and serum gonadotrophin levels were studied in female rats after neonatal androgen administration. After injection of 1250 mug testosterone propionate (TP) on day 5 after birth the composition of the follicular population was altered: at nearly all ages the number of pre-antral follicles (follicular volume 2-20 X 10(5) mum2) was lower than in oil-treated rats, in some cases the number of small antral follicles (21-249 X 10(5) mum3) was also lower. Furthermore levels of serum follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone were decreased from day 7 to day 20 suggesting that the high gonadotrophin levels before day 20 are of importance for normal follicular development. In contrast, final follicular maturation in TP-treated rats was enhanced; at day 35 more large antral follicles (follicular volume greater than or equal to 500 X 10(5) mum3) were present in TP-treated rats than in oil-treated rats. The presence of more large antral follicles was accompanied by higher plasma oestradiol concentrations, higher uterine weights and advanced vaginal opening. These results demonstrate an inhibition of normal follicular growth and an acceleration of ovarian maturation after neonatal androgen administration.


[Immunohistochemical proof of amelogenin in teeth--a contribution to the evaluation of the age in the identification of unknown corpses].
When a corpse is found that cannot be identified, one of the forensic tasks is to determine how old the person was when she or he died. To solve this frequently asked question in forensic practice, the enamel protein amelogenin was marked immunohistochemically in 249 extracted teeth. Amelogenin is already produced during prenatal development and is gradually used up throughout life into old age. Hence, the demonstrability decreases with age. The extent of the labelling can be quantified by measuring the mean optical density (MOD). While it is not possible to determine the age on the basis of the mean optical density measurements alone, logistic regression of the MOD together with dichotomisation of the teeth according to age allows statements as to whether the person was younger or older than 30 years.


Elective percutaneous (Rapitrac) tracheotomy: results of a prospective trial.
A prospective trial was carried out to assess the incidence of complications from percutaneous tracheotomies by the Rapitrac method performed by one member of an otolaryngology unit and to compare them to the dissection method over the same time period. The first 32 patients had a Rapitrac carried out blindly. Three had paratracheal or anterior tracheal insertions, one of which resulted in death of the patient. The procedure was aborted in 5 patients (16%) because of difficulty introducing the curved needle. Primary hemorrhage, damage to the posterior wall, and surgical emphysema occurred in 2 (6%) patients each. Because of the high rate of complications due to the blind nature of the procedure, the following 23 procedures were carried out using a fiberoptic bronchoscope inserted through the endotracheal tube. This procedure resulted in only 2 minor complications and is recommended if the Rapitrac technique of percutaneous tracheotomy is the method of choice.


The role of the medical librarian in SDI systems.
Many ongoing selective dissemination systems designers assume that the librarian can be omitted from active participation in execution of the master plan. ISI's four years of experience with ASCA(R) service have shown that librarians must be an integral part of the system and engage in an active dialogue between users and the machine. Specific examples of how librarians can best serve the information needs of scientists using SDI systems are examined. It is the basic contention of this paper that the librarian should serve as an intermediary between users and the numerous new information media. In this manner the librarian can filter and translate the requirements of individual scientists to conform with the inherent limitations of all machine systems while exploiting their capabilities to the fullest.


Drug depot-anchoring hydrogel: A self-assembling scaffold for localized drug release and enhanced stem cell differentiation.
Localized and long-term delivery of growth factors has been a long-standing challenge for stem cell-based tissue engineering. In the current study, a polymeric drug depot-anchoring hydrogel scaffold was developed for the sustained release of macromolecules to enhance the differentiation of stem cells. Self-assembling peptide (RADA16)-modified drug depots (RDDs) were prepared and anchored to a RADA16 hydrogel. The anchoring effect of RADA16 modification on the RDDs was tested both in vitro and in vivo. It was shown that the in vitro leakage of RDDs from the RADA16 hydrogel was significantly less than that of the unmodified drug depots (DDs). In addition, the in vivo retention of injected hydrogel-incorporated RDDs was significantly longer than that of hydrogel-incorporated unmodified DDs. A model drug, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), was encapsulated in RDDs (V-RDDs) as drug depot that was then anchored to the hydrogel. The release of VEGF could be sustained for 4weeks. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were cultured on the V-RDDs-anchoring scaffold and enhanced cell proliferation and differentiation were observed, compared with a VEGF-loaded scaffold. Furthermore, this scaffold laden with EPCs promoted neovascularization in an animal model of hind limb ischemia. These results demonstrate that self-assembling hydrogel-anchored drug-loaded RDDs are promising for localized and sustained drug release, and can effectively enhance the proliferation and differentiation of resident stem cells, thus lead to successful tissue regeneration.


Analysis of Vibration-Damping Characteristics and Parameter Optimization of Cylindrical Cavity Double-Plate Phononic Crystal.
For the application of low-frequency vibration damping in industry, a cylindrical cavity double-layer plate-type local resonance phononic crystal structure is proposed to solve low-frequency vibration in mechanical equipment. Initially, using COMSOL 5.4 software, the bending wave band gap is calculated in conjunction with elastic dynamics theory and the BOLOCH theorem to be 127-384 Hz. Then the mechanism of bending wave gap is analyzed by combining element mode shape and an equivalent model. Subsequently, the bending vibration transmission characteristics of the crystal plate are explained, and the vibration-damping characteristics are illustrated in combination with the time-frequency domain. An experimental system is constructed to verify the vibration-damping properties of crystal plates; the experimental results and simulation results are verified with each other. Finally, the element structural parameters are optimized using the RSM. Fifty-four sets of experiments are designed based on six structural factors and three levels, and the expressions between the bending wave band gap and six structural factors are obtained. Combining the particle swarm algorithm, the optimization is performed with the band gap width as the target. This method is shown to be more accurate than the commonly used interior point method. The structure of cylindrical-cavity-type phononic crystal and the parameter optimization method proposed in this paper provide a certain reference for the design of local-resonance-type phononic crystal.


Migration of intravenously grafted mesenchymal stem cells to injured heart in rats.
The present study aimed to determine the role of tissue injury in migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) intravenously transplanted into heart and to establish experimental basis for improving stem cell therapy in its targeting and effectiveness. MSCs were isolated from bone marrow of male Sprague-Dawley rats and purified by density centrifuge and adhered to the culture plate in vitro. Female rats were divided randomly into four groups. Myocardial ischemia (MI) transplanted group received MSCs infusion through tail vein 3 h after MI and compared with sham-operated group or normal group with MSCs infusion, or control group received culture medium infusion. MI was created in female rats by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery. The heart was harvested 1 week and 8 weeks after transplantation. The characteristics of migration of MSCs to heart were detected with expression of sry gene of Y chromosome by using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Ultrastructural changes of the ischemic myocardium of the recipient rats were observed by transmission electron microscope (TEM). One week or 8 weeks after transplantation, sry positive cells were observed in the cardiac tissue in both of MI transplanted group and sham-operated group, the number of sry positive cells being significantly higher in MI transplanted group (P<0.01). No significant difference was found in the number of sry positive cells between 1 week and 8 weeks after transplantation. No sry positive cells were observed in the hearts of control and normal group. In addition, the ultrastructure of some cells located in the peri-infarct area of MI rats with MSCs transplantation was similar to that of MSCs cultured in vitro. These results indicate that MSCs are capable of migrating towards ischemic myocardium in vivo and the fastigium of migration might appear around 1 week after MI. The tissue injury and its degree play an important role in the migration of MSCs.


[Effect of andrographolide on Candida albicans biofilm dispersion].
Along with the increase in fungal infections, Candida albicans prevention and control become the focus of anti-fungal infection at present. This study aims to discuss the effect monomer andrographolide (AG) on C. albicans biofilm dispersion. In the experiment, micro-well plates and medical catheter pieces were used to establish the C. albicans biofilm model. It was discovered by XTT assay and flat band method that 1 000, 500, 250 mg x L(-1) AG could impact the activity of C. albicans biofilm dispersion cells. The morphological structures of residual biofilms on catheter pieces were observed with scanning electron microscopy, which showed that 1 000, 500, 250 mg x L(-1) AG could induce C. albicans biofilm dispersion in a dose-dependent manner, and the dispersed cells were dominated by the yeast phase. According to the real-time fluorescence quantification PCR (qRT-PCR) test, AG could up-regulate HSP90 expression and down-regulate UME6 and PES1 expressions. This study demonstrates that AG could induce C. albicans biofilm dispersion to some extent.


Haemorrhagic shock--metabolic parameters for the assessment of damage in lung, liver and kidney tissue.
Changes in catabolic and biosynthetic parameters measured in vitro were used as criteria to assess the degree of damage in tissues after an animal was exposed to severe haemorrhagic shock for periods of 1 and 2 hours (blood loss 36,8%, blood pressure 30 +/- 5 mmHg). The biosynthetic capacity of lung tissue, as determined by the incorporation of 1-14C-palmitate into total lung lipids, declined significantly with time. This reduction correlates well (r =0,99) with the rate of decline in 14CO2 production from 1-14C- and 6-14C-glucose oxidation as well as with the decline in the rate of oxygen uptake. Any one of these parameters could therefore be used as an index of the degree of tissue damage due to haemorrhagic shock. Comparing the rates of decline in 14CO2 production from 1-14C-glucose by lung, liver and kidney tissue from the same animal after haemorrhagic insult for 1 hour, lung tissue appeared to be the most sensitive to hypoxia and kidney the least so. However, 2 hours after severe haemorrhage, i.e. near the terminal phase, the rate of 14CO2 production from 6-14C-glucose by liver tissue decreased dramatically by more than 53% of the control value. Apart from kidney and lung dysfunction, irreparable liver damage probably plays a major role in the fatal course of severe haemorrhage.


Relationship Between the Gut Microbiota and Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review.
In recent years, scientific research on the gut microbiota and their relationship with some diseases, including neurological ones, has notably increased. As a result of these investigations, the so-called gut-brain axis arises. Despite its influence on the evolution and development of cognitive impairment, the gut-brain axis is little defined and demonstrated. To provide the best scientific evidence available on the relationship between the gut microbiota and Alzheimer's disease. Systematic and narrative review of the information generated in the last 5 years in national and international databases, in English and Spanish. Eight observational studies were selected, carried out in humans and, therefore, suitable for inclusion in this review. The results of these studies support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the gut microbiota and cognitive disorders through the gut-brain axis. However, today, there is a substantial lack of human studies, especially clinical trials, which makes it difficult to formulate clinical recommendations on this topic.


Spinal Cord Injury and Related Clinical Trials.
Spinal cord injury (SCI) has been considered an incurable condition and it often causes devastating sequelae. In terms of the pathophysiology of SCI, reducing secondary damage is the key to its treatment. Various researches and clinical trials have been performed, and some of them showed promising results; however, there is still no gold standard treatment with sufficient evidence. Two therapeutic concepts for SCI are neuroprotective and neuroregenerative strategies. The neuroprotective strategy modulates the pathomechanism of SCI. The purpose of neuroprotective treatment is to minimize secondary damage following direct injury. The aim of neuroregenerative treatment is to enhance the endogenous regeneration process and to alter the intrinsic barrier. With advancement in biotechnology, cell therapy using cell transplantation is currently under investigation. This review discusses the pathophysiology of SCI and introduces the therapeutic candidates that have been developed so far.


Regulation of TRPM2 by extra- and intracellular calcium.
TRPM2 is a calcium-permeable nonselective cation channel that is opened by the binding of ADP-ribose (ADPR) to a C-terminal nudix domain. Channel activity is further regulated by several cytosolic factors, including cyclic ADPR (cADPR), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP), Ca(2+) and calmodulin (CaM), and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). In addition, intracellular ions typically used in patch-clamp experiments such as Cs(+) or Na(+) can alter ADPR sensitivity and voltage dependence, complicating the evaluation of the roles of the various modulators in a physiological context. We investigated the roles of extra- and intracellular Ca(2+) as well as CaM as modulators of ADPR-induced TRPM2 currents under more physiological conditions, using K(+)-based internal saline in patch-clamp experiments performed on human TRPM2 expressed in HEK293 cells. Our results show that in the absence of Ca(2+), both internally and externally, ADPR alone cannot induce cation currents. In the absence of extracellular Ca(2+), a minimum of 30 nM internal Ca(2+) is required to cause partial TRPM2 activation with ADPR. However, 200 microM external Ca(2+) is as efficient as 1 mM Ca(2+) in TRPM2 activation, indicating an external Ca(2+) binding site important for proper channel function. Ca(2+) facilitates ADPR gating with a half-maximal effective concentration of 50 nM and this is independent of extracellular Ca(2+). Furthermore, TRPM2 currents inactivate if intracellular Ca(2+) levels fall below 100 nM irrespective of extracellular Ca(2+). The facilitatory effect of intracellular Ca(2+) is not mimicked by Mg(2+), Ba(2+), or Zn(2+). Only Sr(2+) facilitates TRPM2 as effectively as Ca(2+), but this is due to Sr(2+)-induced Ca(2+) release from internal stores rather than a direct effect of Sr(2+) itself. Together, these data demonstrate that cytosolic Ca(2+) regulates TRPM2 channel activation. Its facilitatory action likely occurs via CaM, since the addition of 100 microM CaM to the patch pipette significantly enhances ADPR-induced TRPM2 currents at fixed [Ca(2+)](i) and this can be counteracted by calmidazolium. We conclude that ADPR is responsible for TRPM2 gating and Ca(2+) facilitates activation via calmodulin.


Novel endoscopic management for pancreatic pseudocyst with fistula to the common bile duct.
Pancreatic pseudocyst formation is a well-known complication of pancreatitis. It represents about 75% of the cystic lesions of the pancreas and might be located within or surrounding the pancreatic tissue. Sixty percent of the occurrences resolve spontaneously and only persistent, symptomatic or complicated cysts need to be treated. Complications include infection, hemorrhage, gastric outlet obstruction, splenic infarction and rupture. The formation of fistulas to other viscera is rare and most commonly occurs within the stomach, duodenum or colon. We report a case of a patient with a pancreatic pseudocyst in communication with the common bile duct. There have been only few cases reported in the literature. We successfully managed our case by performing an endoscopic ultrasound-guided drainage of the pancreatic collection and a contemporaneous stenting of the common bile duct. Performed independently, both drainages are effective, safe and well-coded and the expertise on these procedures is widespread. By our knowledge this therapeutic approach was never reported in literature but we retain this is the most correct treatment for this very rare condition.


Effect of hopping frequency on bilateral differences in leg stiffness.
Understanding the degree of leg stiffness during human movement would provide important information that may be used for injury prevention. In the current study, we investigated bilateral differences in leg stiffness during one-legged hopping. Ten male participants performed one-legged hopping in place, matching metronome beats at 1.5, 2.2, and 3.0 Hz. Based on a spring-mass model, we calculated leg stiffness, which is defined as the ratio of maximal ground reaction force to maximum center of mass displacement at the middle of the stance phase, measured from vertical ground reaction force. In all hopping frequency settings, there was no significant difference in leg stiffness between legs. Although not statistically significant, asymmetry was the greatest at 1.5 Hz, followed by 2.2 and 3.0 Hz for all dependent variables. Furthermore, the number of subjects with an asymmetry greater than the 10% criterion was larger at 1.5 Hz than those at 2.2 and 3.0 Hz. These results will assist in the formulation of treatment-specific training regimes and rehabilitation programs for lower extremity injuries.


Long-term protection in at-risk hypertensive patients--a role for nifedipine GITS?
Hypertensive patients who are at high risk of developing cardiovascular (CV) complications have become the focus of modern treatment guidelines. The choice of antihypertensive therapies in these patients should be evidence-based: in particular, there should be evidence of a beneficial impact on CV events in addition to blood pressure-lowering effects. The International Nifedipine GITS study: Intervention as a Goal in Hypertension Treatment (INSIGHT) is the first, large, randomized, double-blind study undertaken exclusively in high-risk hypertensive patients, with CV events as a prospectively defined primary end-point. The choice of a diuretic (co-amilozide) as a comparator reflects the fact that this group of antihypertensive drugs has been shown to reduce CV events in high-risk hypertensive patients. Nifedipine, administered in a long-acting gastrointestinal-transport-system (GITS) formulation, and co amilozide were equally effective in preventing overall CV or cerebrovascular complications. This finding extended to the subgroup of patients with diabetes at baseline. Substudies to INSIGHT showed that, compared with coamilozide, nifedipine GITS was significantly more effective at preventing an increase in intima-media thickness in the carotid artery and significantly slowed the progression of coronary calcification. The results from INSIGHT support incorporating nifedipine GITS in the management of high-risk hypertensive patients to prevent atherosclerosis-related illness and death.


Free-Standing Sandwich-Type Graphene/Nanocellulose/Silicon Laminar Anode for Flexible Rechargeable Lithium Ion Batteries.
Freely deformable and free-standing electrodes together with high capacity are crucial to realizing flexible Li-ion batteries. Herein, a lamellar graphene/nanocellulose/silicon (GN/NC/Si) film assembled by interpenetrated GN nanosheets is synthesized via a facile vacuum-assisted filtration approach accompanied by the covalent cross-linking effect of glutaraldehyde. The hybrid film consists of the highly conductive GN matrix as an effective current collector, hydroxylated silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) embedded uniformly within GN interlayer and NC as adhesive to cross-link GN and Si NPs. When applied as anode, the GN/NC/Si film exhibits a high reversible capacity of 1251 mA h g-1 at 100 mA g-1 after 100 cycles and superior rate capability. More importantly, in the stress-strain test, this film represents robust mechanical strength, which not only provides good flexibility but also accommodates volume change of Si during cycling. By coupling with lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode, the full cell successfully powers a light-emitting diode, even bended and folded, indicating the deformation-tolerant GN/NC/Si film electrode for flexible Li-ion batteries. Therefore, the design of layered nanocomposites will offer the possibility closer to the application of flexible batteries.


Antiparallel dimer and actin assembly.
The antiparallel dimer (APD) is a unique actin species, which can be detected in the early stages of actin polymerization. In this work, we introduce novel tools for examination of the effects of the APD on actin polymerization. We document that bifunctional methanothiosulfonate (MTS) reagents are an attractive alternative to the routinely used p-phenylene maleimide (pPDM) for APD detection, allowing for fast and efficient cross-linking under conditions of actin polymerization at neutral pH. We report also that pyrene-labeled yeast actin mutant A167C/C374A (C167PM) forms significant amounts of stable APD in solution, without chemical cross-linking or polymerization-affecting compounds, and that the kinetics of APD transformation and decay upon actin polymerization can be easily monitored. The dimerization of C167PM has been characterized in sedimentation equilibrium experiments (K(d) approximately 0.3 microM). This new system offers the advantage of assessing the effects of the APD under physiological conditions (pH, ionic strength, and Mg(2+) concentration) and testing for conformational transitions in the APD during nucleation-polymerization reactions or/and in the presence of actin-interacting factors. The results obtained using two different systems (C167PM actin and polylysine-induced polymerization of alpha-actin) show that the APD decays at a rate slower than that at which the filaments elongate, revealing its transient incorporation into filaments, and confirm that it inhibits the nucleation and elongation of actin filaments.


Osteitis fibrosa cystica of mandible in hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome: A rare presentation and review of literature.
Brown's tumor, also referred as osteitis fibrosa cystica is a rare nonneoplastic diagnostically challenging consequence of hyperparathyroidism (HPT) which occurs due to increased parathormone secretions in blood, causing excessive calcium resorption from kidneys, bone resorption, and phosphaturia. Brown's tumor is a misnomer, presenting as cystic expansile lesions in bone, often misdiagnosed as neoplastic lesion or granuloma or abscess in bones. It can affect long bones, clavicle, ribs, and pelvis. According to literature, skeletal manifestations of Brown tumor is relatively rare and occurs in <2% of the cases of HPT. We present a case of a female 15-year-old patient who presented with bleeding gums and an expansile lesion in mandible whose previous investigations elsewhere suggested a malignant lesion. However, further investigations revealed it to be Brown's tumor with primary HPT which is a rare genetic disorder, known as HPT-Jaw Tumor Syndrome (HPT-JT).


Immune suppressive microenvironment in liver metastases contributes to organ-specific response of immunotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
The liver is a frequent site of metastases and liver metastases (LM) correlate with diminished immunotherapy efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study aimed to analyze whether tumor response to immunotherapy differs between pulmonary lesions (PL) and LM in NSCLC and to explore potential mechanisms through multiomics analysis. This observational longitudinal clinical cohort study included patients with NSCLC with LM receiving immunotherapy was conducted to evaluate organ-specific tumor response of PL and LM. We collected paired PL and LM tumor samples to analyze the organ-specific difference using whole-exome sequencing, RNA sequencing, and multiplex immunohistochemistry. A total of 52 patients with NSCLC with LM were enrolled to evaluate the organ-specific response of immunotherapy. The objective response rate (21.1% vs 32.7%) and disease control rate of LM were lower than that of PL (67.3% vs 86.5%). One-third of patients showed mixed response, among whom 88.2% (15/17) presented with LM increasing, but PL decreasing, while the others had the opposite pattern (p=0.002). In another independent cohort, 27 pairs of matched PL and LM tumor samples from the same individuals, including six simultaneously collected pairs, were included in the translational part. Genomic landscapes profiling revealed similar somatic mutations, tumor mutational burden, and neoantigen number between PL and LM. Bulk-RNA sequencing showed immune activation-related genes including CD8A, LCK, and ICOS were downregulated in LM. The antigen processing and presentation, natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity and T-cell receptor signaling pathway were enriched in PL compared with LM. Multiplex immunohistochemistry detected significantly lower fractions of CD8+ cells (p=0.036) and CD56dim+ cells (p=0.016) in LM compared with PL. Single-cell RNA sequencing also characterized lower effector CD8+ T cells activation and NK cells cytotoxicity in LM. Compared with PL, LM presents an inferior organ-specific tumor response to immunotherapy. PL and LM showed limited heterogeneity in the genomic landscape, while the LM tumor microenvironment displayed lower levels of immune activation and infiltration than PL, which might contribute to developing precise immunotherapy strategies for patients with NSCLC with LM.


Expression of NAC1 up-stream regulatory region and its relationship to the lateral root initiation induced by gibberellins and auxins.
A 1050 bp up-stream regulatory fragment of the transcription factor gene NAC1 in Arabidopsis thaliana was isolated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based techniques. The fragment was used to substitute the 35S promoter of the pBI121 plasmid to construct a beta-glucuronidase gene (GUS) expression system. The construct was introduced into tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum) plants by the Agrobacterium-mediated transferring method. GUS expression pattern was studied by using the transgenic lines. The results showed that the GUS driven by the NAC1 up-stream regulatory region was specifically expressed in the root meristem region, basal areas of the lateral root primordium and the lateral roots. The GUS expression was induced by 3-indolebutyric acid (IBA) and gibberellins (GA3 and GA4+7). The results indicated that the up-stream regulatory fragment of NAC1 responded to plant hormones. The fragment might be involved in both auxins and gibberellins signaling in promoting the development of lateral roots.


Long-term Dependency for 3D Reconstruction of Freehand Ultrasound Without External Tracker.
Reconstructing freehand ultrasound in 3D without any external tracker has been a long-standing challenge in ultrasound-assisted procedures. We aim to define new ways of parameterising long-term dependencies, and evaluate the performance. First, long-term dependency is encoded by transformation positions within a frame sequence. This is achieved by combining a sequence model with a multi-transformation prediction. Second, two dependency factors are proposed, anatomical image content and scanning protocol, for contributing towards accurate reconstruction. Each factor is quantified experimentally by reducing respective training variances. 1) The added long-term dependency up to 400 frames at 20 frames per second (fps) indeed improved reconstruction, with an up to 82.4% lowered accumulated error, compared with the baseline performance. The improvement was found to be dependent on sequence length, transformation interval and scanning protocol and, unexpectedly, not on the use of recurrent networks with long-short term modules; 2) Decreasing either anatomical or protocol variance in training led to poorer reconstruction accuracy. Interestingly, greater performance was gained from representative protocol patterns, than from representative anatomical features. The proposed algorithm uses hyperparameter tuning to effectively utilise long-term dependency. The proposed dependency factors are of practical significance in collecting diverse training data, regulating scanning protocols and developing efficient networks. The proposed new methodology with publicly available volunteer data and code for parametersing the long-term dependency, experimentally shown to be valid sources of performance improvement, which could potentially lead to better model development and practical optimisation of the reconstruction application.


Estimation of the causal effects on survival of two-stage nonrandomized treatment sequences for recurrent diseases.
In the treatment of cancer, patients commonly receive a variety of sequential treatments. The initial treatments administered following diagnosis can vary, as well as subsequent salvage regimens given after disease recurrence. This article considers the situation where neither initial treatments nor salvage treatments are randomized. Assuming there are no unmeasured confounders, we estimate the joint causal effects on survival of initial and salvage treatments, that is, the effects of two-stage treatment sequences. For each individual treatment sequence, we estimate the survival distribution function and the mean restricted survival time. Different treatment sequences are then compared using these estimates and their corresponding covariances. Simulation studies were conducted to evaluate the performance of the methods, including their sensitivity to the violation of the assumption of no unmeasured confounders. The methods are illustrated by a retrospective study of patients with soft tissue sarcoma, which motivated this research.


Expression Profiling of Strawberry Allergen Fra a during Fruit Ripening Controlled by Exogenous Auxin.
Strawberry fruit contain the allergenic Fra a proteins, members of the pathogenesis-related 10 protein family that causes oral allergic syndrome symptoms. Fra a proteins are involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, which might be important for color development in fruits. Auxin is an important plant hormone in strawberry fruit that controls fruit fleshiness and ripening. In this study, we treated strawberry fruits with exogenous auxin or auxin inhibitors at pre- and post-harvest stages, and analyzed Fra a transcriptional and translational expression levels during fruit development by real-time PCR and immunoblotting. Pre-harvest treatment with 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) alone did not affect Fra a expression, but applied in conjunction with achene removal NAA promoted fruit pigmentation and Fra a protein accumulation. The response was developmental stage-specific: Fra a 1 was highly expressed in immature fruit, whereas Fra a 2 was expressed in young to ripe fruit. In post-harvest treatments, auxin did not contribute to Fra a induction. Auxin inhibitors delayed fruit ripening; as a result, they seemed to influence Fra a 1 expression. Thus, Fra a expression was not directly regulated by auxin, but might be associated with the ripening process and/or external factors in a paralog-specific manner.


Association of follicle-stimulating hormone with lipid profiles in older women: a cross-sectional SPECT-China study.
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is associated with higher risks of metabolic syndrome and diabetes in menopausal women. We aimed to investigate whether FSH was associated with the lipid profile in women older than 55 years. The data were obtained from a cross-sectional study. Our data were from the Survey on Prevalence in East China for Metabolic Diseases and Risk Factors (China, including Shanghai and Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces). A total of 1795 women older than 55 years were selected. Morning serum sex hormones and lipid profiles were measured. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to analyse the data. Lower FSH was associated with lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and higher triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C ratio and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)/HDL-C ratio (all p for trend <0.05) after adjusting for age and other sex hormones. After further adjustment for body mass index, diabetes and hypertension, the associations of FSH with the lipid profile weakened, but the associations of FSH quartiles with HDL-C and the TC/HDL-C ratio were still significant (both p for trend <0.05). Compared with women in the highest FSH quartile, the odds of low HDL-C (HDL-C<1.04 mmol/L) in women in the lowest FSH quartile were 5.25 (95% CI 1.60 to 17.26) (p for trend <0.05) in the fully adjusted model, and the odds of TC≥6.22 mmol/L, TGs≥2.26 mmol/L and LDL-C≥4.14 mmol/L were not significant. Luteinising hormone did not show a significant association with dyslipidaemia. Lower FSH was associated with a worse lipid profile in women older than 55. Diabetes, adiposity and hypertension mostly explained the association of FSH with TGs and the LDL-C/HDL-C ratio but only partially explained the associations of FSH with HDL-C and the TC/HDL-C ratio.


The importance of effective communication in preventing litigation.
Good communication in all aspects of medical practice is essential. Effective communication with your patient not only enables you to take an accurate history but also helps the patient to understand their illness and no doubt assists the healing process. Communication with other health professionals allows the team approach to healthcare to succeed. It reduces the chances of a breakdown in continuity of care, builds relationships and understanding between different disciplines and specialties and helps professionals to learn from each other. In the medico-legal field poor communication is the underlying problem in the most of cases that MPS deals with. The majority of negligence cases are not related to the clinical quality of care but are triggered by inadequate communication. A breakdown in the doctor-patient often occurs before the incident that leads to a claim. It is as if the patient is just waiting for their moment to sue. In a busy clinic or GP surgery it is often easy to forget the human needs of the patient and concentrate on their medical needs. First impressions are vital not just with the doctor but also with other staff and even the clinic or hospital itself. During the consultation careful listening, giving sincere empathy early in the consultation and an expression of understanding of their concerns will go a long way to instill confidence in the patient and reduce the likelihood of a complaint should things go wrong.


Topical azelastine has a 12-hour duration of action as assessed by histamine challenge-induced exudation of alpha 2-macroglobulin into human nasal airways.
Oral anti-histamine drugs are widely used in the treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis. Recently, anti-histamines have become available also for topical treatment. The present study, involving healthy subjects, examined the effect of topical azelastine on luminal entry of alpha 2-macroglobulin and symptoms evoked by repeat histamine challenges during 24 h. The effect was compared to a clinical dose of the oral anti-histamine cetirizine and to placebo treatments. Placebo and azelastine (0.254 mg per nasal cavity) were delivered as two consecutive actuations per nasal cavity using a nasal spray device. Oral placebo and cetirizine (10 mg) were given as single doses in a placebo-controlled (double-dummy), double-blind, and cross-over design. Histamine-challenges were given 1 h before treatment, and 1, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h after each treatment. The nasal mucosal surface was lavaged after each challenge. The lavage-fluid levels of alpha 2-macroglobulin were determined to assess mucosal exudation of bulk plasma, and nasal symptoms were scored. Histamine (40-400 micrograms/mL) produced dose-dependent exudation and symptoms. Compared between each treatment and placebo, azelastine and cetirizine reduced the 40 and/or 400 micrograms/mL histamine-induced mucosal exudation of plasma from 1-12 h after treatment. In addition, cetirizine reduced the 40 micrograms/mL histamine-induced mucosal exudation of plasma 24 h after treatment. Differences between the two treatments were not evident regarding nasal symptoms. Histamine challenge-induced mucosal exudation of plasma appears to be a useful method for studies of the duration of action of antihistamines. We conclude that topical azelastine is suited for b.i.d. therapy and that neither the exudative process nor watery secretion may impede the efficacy or the duration of action of this nasal drug.


On the effect of sodium salts on the coil-to-globule transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide).
It has been shown that sodium salts significantly affect the temperature of the coil-to-globule collapse transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 14505]. Since this phenomenon resembles the cold renaturation of globular proteins, it can be studied by means of the theoretical approach devised to rationalise the occurrence and the mechanism of cold denaturation [G. Graziano, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 14245; Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, 16, 21755]. It emerges that the collapse transition is driven by the decrease in the solvent-excluded volume in order to maximise the translational entropy of water molecules and ions. At a given temperature, the aqueous solutions of sodium salts have densities higher than that of water. For this reason, the magnitude of the solvent-excluded volume effect proves to be larger, stabilizing the globular conformations of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). On the other hand, two large ions, iodide and thiocyanate, are poorly hydrated and stabilise the coil conformations of the polymer by a preferential binding mechanism.


Micro-RNA Profiling as a Predictor of Clinical Outcomes for Head and Neck Cancer Patients.
Head and neck cancer is one of the leading malignancies worldwide. Due to the lack of symptoms in the early stage of the disease, about two thirds of patients present with locally advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Even with significantly improved survival rates over the past two decades due to advanced imaging and treatment modalities, locoregional recurrence rates in patients with advanced disease ranges from 16% to 35%. Alternative therapeutic targets are being developed to improve survival outcomes. MicroRNAs (miRNA or miRs) are a family of small non-coding RNA species that have been demonstrated to regulate all cellular, physiological and developmental processes. Recently, there has been an exponential increase in the number of studies suggesting that miRNA is involved in regulating tumor metastasis, chemoresistance, radioresistance and survival outcomes. MiRNA candidates have been identified as potential prognostic biomarkers to diagnose cancer stages and progression, as well as to monitor follow-up treatment. In this review, we will discuss the miRNA profile in each stage of head and neck patients' therapy, with an emphasis on its application to clinical outcome prognosis.


Optimizing optically injected semiconductor lasers for periodic dynamics with reduced sensitivity to perturbations.
Optically injected semiconductor lasers generate limit-cycle dynamics of period-one and period-two oscillations at microwave frequencies. At specific operating points, the periodic oscillations can be rendered insensitive to small-signal fluctuation in the operating conditions of the master and slave lasers. Periodic oscillations with low-sensitivity to fluctuation in the slave laser bias current, injection strength, or detuning frequency can be enhanced through tailoring the intrinsic laser parameters. Here, through numerical calculations, the effects of each intrinsic parameter on the various low-sensitivity operating points are demonstrated through detailed maps as functions of the operating parameters. For enhanced low sensitivity to bias-current and injection-strength fluctuations, a laser with a small linewidth enhancement factor is favored. Conversely, a large linewidth enhancement factor enhances low sensitivity to detuning-frequency fluctuations. Lasers with a more negative value of the gain saturation factor confine the regions of low sensitivity to fluctuations in the bias current and detuning frequency to the extrema of the periodic oscillation frequency. The laser relaxation rates that enhance the periodic-oscillation dynamic regions of an optically injected semiconductor laser, in turn, increases the regions of the various types of low-sensitivity operating points.


Consumers' concerns about food and health in Australia and New Zealand.
Three studies were conducted in Australia and New Zealand to examine consumers' ratings of food and health concerns, the influence of sociodemographic factors on them, and the interrelationships between perceived concerns. Similar results were found in both countries. Principal-components analyses yielded several factors that suggested consumers in both countries perceived food and health issues along several key dimensions. These were related to concerns about food safety, food system issues, health, the environment and animal and human welfare. Generally, women expressed more concern than did men about most issues, while young people and highly educated people expressed least concern. These differences suggest that familiarity, perceived control and personal resources may have some influence on expressed concerns. However, other psychological influences remain to be identified since only small amounts of variance in the key dimensions were explained by the demographic variables. Comparisons of the rankings of the issues in the two New Zealand studies, administered 2 years apart, showed that they were very similar (ρ = 0.91, p<0.0001) despite the use of different response scale wording. This supports the view that the population's evaluation of food issues may be enduring and suggests they are relatively independent of differences in elicitation questions.


Obesity and lipid stress inhibit carnitine acetyltransferase activity.
Carnitine acetyltransferase (CrAT) is a mitochondrial matrix enzyme that catalyzes the interconversion of acetyl-CoA and acetylcarnitine. Emerging evidence suggests that this enzyme functions as a positive regulator of total body glucose tolerance and muscle activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), a mitochondrial enzyme complex that promotes glucose oxidation and is feedback inhibited by acetyl-CoA. Here, we used tandem mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling to identify a negative relationship between CrAT activity and muscle content of lipid intermediates. CrAT specific activity was diminished in muscles from obese and diabetic rodents despite increased protein abundance. This reduction in enzyme activity was accompanied by muscle accumulation of long-chain acylcarnitines (LCACs) and acyl-CoAs and a decline in the acetylcarnitine/acetyl-CoA ratio. In vitro assays demonstrated that palmitoyl-CoA acts as a direct mixed-model inhibitor of CrAT. Similarly, in primary human myocytes grown in culture, nutritional and genetic manipulations that promoted mitochondrial influx of fatty acids resulted in accumulation of LCACs but a pronounced decrease of CrAT-derived short-chain acylcarnitines. These results suggest that lipid-induced antagonism of CrAT might contribute to decreased PDH activity and glucose disposal in the context of obesity and diabetes.


The influence of freezing on the maximum torque capacity of long bones. An experimental study on dogs.
The strength of bone has often been measured in previously frozen samples and the freezing and thawing effect on the strength properties has been considered negligible. By means of a specially constructed torsion machine and a new method for rixing the test bone into the machine, previously frozen bones have been compared to fresh controls. The previously frozen samples were significantly weaker, with an average difference of -- 4.6 per cent.


Differential intracellular expression of CCR5 and chemokines in multiple sclerosis subtypes.
Chemokines are small chemoattractant cytokines which participate in the migration of immune cells into the CNS and contribute to the T cell-mediated pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). The expression of chemokines and their receptors in freshly isolated mononuclear cells from peripheral blood (PBMC) was studied in relation to MS subtype, disease duration and progression in a total of 57 patients with MS (22 relapsing remitting, RRMS; 21 secondary progressive, SPMS; 14 primary progressive, PPMS) and 17 healthy controls. The RNA expression of CCR5 in PBMC was analysed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using specific oligonucleotide primers. The PBMC levels of CCR5-ligands MIP-1 alpha/beta and RANTES, and chemokines MCP-1, IL-8, lymphotactin, IP-10 and I-309 were analysed by ribonuclease protection assay (RPA). Significantly increased intracellular CCR5 RNA expression intensity was detected in PPMS when compared with SPMS ( p=0.009), RRMS ( p=0.013), and controls ( p=0.023). However, the surface expression of CCR5 on CD4(+) cells from PBMC, analysed by flow cytometry, appeared to be similar in all MS subtypes and controls. The CCR5-ligands RANTES and MIP-1b were expressed constitutively in all patients and controls. Interleukin-8 was found in all MS subtypes and controls, but IP-10 was detected only in RRMS and SPMS, and lymphotactin occasionally in other subtypes but PPMS. MCP-1, MIP-1a or I-309 were not expressed in any of the groups studied. A correlation was found between the RNA levels of RANTES and CCR5 in PPMS ( r=0.735). Differential profile in the expression of CCR5 and chemokines between PPMS and other MS subtypes may contribute to differences in the pathogenesis of MS and thus can be of importance in the development of new treatments for MS.


Racism and the sociological imagination.
Our chief purpose in this article is to argue for a restoration of a strong notion of agency to sociological accounts of social relations, and particularly those concerned with group formation and conflict. We contend that much contemporary sociological writing on this topic continues to rely on the concepts of race and ethnicity as primary explanatory or descriptive devices. This has two important consequences: on the one hand it reproduces the powerful theoretical obfuscation associated with these concepts, whilst on the other it prompts the notion that human agency has only an illusory role as an intentional agent. Drawing on the intellectual resources of a Hegelian-inflected historical materialism and realism, we challenge both claims by arguing for a post-race, post-ethnicity sociology of group formation, one which allows a greater scope for agency in the determination of social life.


Observations on the May 2019 Joffre Peak landslides, British Columbia.
Two catastrophic landslides occurred in quick succession on 13 and 16 May 2019, from the north face of Joffre Peak, Cerise Creek, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia. With headscarps at 2560 m and 2690 m elevation, both began as rock avalanches, rapidly transforming into debris flows along middle Cerise Creek, and finally into debris floods affecting the fan. Beyond the fan margin, a flood surge on Cayoosh Creek reached bankfull and attenuated rapidly downstream; only fine sediment reached Duffey Lake. The toe of the main debris flow deposit reached 4 km from the headscarp, with a travel angle of 0.28, while the debris flood phase reached the fan margin 5.9 km downstream, with a travel angle of 0.22. Photogrammetry indicates the source volume of each event is 2-3 Mm3, with combined volume of 5 Mm3. Lidar differencing, used to assess deposit volume, yielded a similar total result, although error in the depth estimate introduced large volume error masking the expected increase due to dilation and entrainment. The average velocity of the rock avalanche-debris flow phases, from seismic analysis, was ~ 25-30 m/s, and the velocity of the 16 May debris flood on the upper fan, from super-elevation and boulder sizes, was 5-10 m/s. The volume of debris deposited on the fan was ~ 104 m3, 2 orders of magnitude less than the avalanche/debris flow phases. Progressive glacier retreat and permafrost degradation were likely the conditioning factors; precursor rockfall activity was noted at least ~6 months previous; thus, the mountain was primed to fail. The 13 May landslide was apparently triggered by rapid snowmelt, with debuttressing triggering the 16 May event.


Exact Distributions of Finite Random Matrices and Their Applications to Spectrum Sensing.
The exact and simple distributions of finite random matrix theory (FRMT) are critically important for cognitive radio networks (CRNs). In this paper, we unify some existing distributions of the FRMT with the proposed coefficient matrices (vectors) and represent the distributions with the coefficient-based formulations. A coefficient reuse mechanism is studied, i.e., the same coefficient matrices (vectors) can be exploited to formulate different distributions. For instance, the same coefficient matrices can be used by the largest eigenvalue (LE) and the scaled largest eigenvalue (SLE); the same coefficient vectors can be used by the smallest eigenvalue (SE) and the Demmel condition number (DCN). A new and simple cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the DCN is also deduced. In particular, the dimension boundary between the infinite random matrix theory (IRMT) and the FRMT is initially defined. The dimension boundary provides a theoretical way to divide random matrices into infinite random matrices and finite random matrices. The FRMT-based spectrum sensing (SS) schemes are studied for CRNs. The SLE-based scheme can be considered as an asymptotically-optimal SS scheme when the dimension K is larger than two. Moreover, the standard condition number (SCN)-based scheme achieves the same sensing performance as the SLE-based scheme for dual covariance matrix K = 2 . The simulation results verify that the coefficient-based distributions can fit the empirical results very well, and the FRMT-based schemes outperform the IRMT-based schemes and the conventional SS schemes.


Correlation between total phenolic and flavonoid contents and biological activities of 12 ethanolic extracts of Iranian propolis.
Propolis is a resinous substance produced by honey bees that is very popular as a natural remedy in traditional medicine. The current research is the first study on the biological properties of ethanolic extracts of propolis (EEP) from several different regions (12) of Iran. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents (TPC and TFC) of Iranian EEPs were variable between 26.59-221.38 mg GAE/g EEP and 4.8-100.03 mg QE/g EEP. The DPPH scavenging assay showed all the studied EEP samples, except for the sample with the lowest TPC and TFC (P6), have suitable antioxidant activity. All the EEPs inhibited both cholinesterase enzymes (acetylcholinesterase: AChE, butyrylcholinesterase: BuChE) but most of them exhibited a distinct selectivity over BuChE. Evaluation of the antibacterial activity of the EEP samples using four pathogenic bacteria (B. cereus, S. aureus, A. baumannii, and P. aeruginosa) demonstrated that the antibacterial properties of propolis are more effective on the gram-positive bacterium. Spearman correlation analysis showed a strong positive correlation between TPC and TFC of the Iranian EEPs and their antioxidant, anticholinesterase, and antibacterial activities. Considering that there is ample evidence of anticholinesterase activity of flavonoids and a significant correlation between the anticholinesterase activity of the studied Iranian EEPs and their total flavonoid content was observed, the interaction of 17 well-known propolis flavonoids with AChE and BuChE was explored using molecular docking. The results indicated that all the flavonoids interact with the active site gorge of both enzymes with high affinity. Summing up, the obtained results suggest that Iranian propolis possesses great potential for further studies.


[Extended use, up to 6 years, of an oral amino-bisphosphonate in patients with established osteoporosis].
In osteoporotic women (n:163), 63.8 (+/- 8.1) years old and 15.2 (+/- 8.3) years since menopause, oral (200 mg/day) pamidronate was administered during protracted periods, up to 6 years. During the first 4 years of therapy significant increases from basal in both, lumbar spine and femoral neck were reported (p < 0.01). Patients who underwent to 5-6 years of treatment also showed positive results in both skeletal sites. Whole body mineral content estimated a 23.8 g/year mean gain during a 4-year period. Biochemical bone markers of resorption and formation reflected a variable degree of bone turnover decrease. Such changes were more pronounced at the beginning, and remained steady after the first year of continuous therapy. Calcemia remained between normal range without any hypocalcemic episode being reported. Phosphatemia, within normal range, showed a smooth trend to increase. PTH remained within normal range and vitamin D tended to slightly increase. The total number of new bone fractures and total number of patients with new fractures were less frequent during the pamidronate treatment period than before (p < 0.01). Indeed, the relative risk (RR) of fracture was estimated comparing the treatment lapse, 495 patient/year, vs a pretreatment period of 1,814 patient/year. Overall RR resulted less than 1 (RR = 0.83; CI 95% = 0.53-1.26). In total, hip, forearm and "other" fractures, RR was also less than 1 and remained over 1 in vertebral fractures. The latter can be explained because our sample started its treatment probably in a period of increased spine crushing. Overall fracture results, in a sample of patients as own controls and in spite of differences in ages, suggested that during treatment, patients improved their skeletal biomechanical competence, mainly in sites where cortical bone plays a meaningful role, as in femoral neck. It is concluded that pamidronate is an effective tool to ameliorate the skeletal conditions of postmenopausal osteoporotic women.


Hepatitis C virus infection in vitro triggers endoplasmic reticulum stress and downregulates insulin receptor substrates 1 and 2 through upregulation of cytokine signaling suppressor 3.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is highly prevalent worldwide and most of HCV infections enter into chronic phase subsequently leading to insulin resistance (IR) and clinical complications. Although the clinics of chronic HCV infection is well described, there is need to better understand the molecular mechanisms of HCV-induced IR. Therefore this study was aimed to unveil the role of host genes involved in the development of HCV-induced IR. For this purpose the expression of selected genes in HCV-infected and non-infected Huh-7 cells at various time post infection (p.i.) was assayed by real-time PCR. HCV infection was found to trigger endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response as demonstrated by an increase in the expression of calreticulin (Cal) gene but no change in the expression of Gadd153 gene. The infection also enhanced the expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS-3), responsible for the degradation of insulin receptor substrates (IRS). Moreover, it led to a decreased expression of key signaling molecules IRS-1 and IRS-2, unchanged expression of SOCS-7 and increased expression of downstream signaling molecule Akt. Altogether these findings indicate that the HCV infection induces ER stress and IR in Huh-7 cells in vitro.


Patterns of spread in node-positive cervical cancer: the relationship between local control and distant metastases.
The presence of metastatic pelvic nodes in stage I and II cervical cancer predicts for pelvic and distant recurrence. Whether this malignancy is a systemic disease at onset or locoregionally advanced disease is unclear. To examine this issue, we reviewed cases of node-positive stage I and II cervical cancer to analyze the patterns of spread and the relationship between local control and distant metastasis. Between 1964 and 1993, 163 patients with FIGO stage I-II cervical cancer underwent exploratory laparotomy and bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection and were found to have metastatic pelvic nodes. Patients with positive para-aortic nodes were excluded. Of these patients, 108 underwent radical hysterectomy and postoperative pelvic irradiation, 35 underwent radical hysterectomy without postoperative pelvic irradiation, and 20 did not undergo radical hysterectomy and were treated with definitive radiation therapy. The overall 5- and 10-year actuarial disease-free survival rates for the entire group were 55% and 49%, respectively. The 5- and 10-year actuarial pelvic failure rates were 30.5% and 37%, respectively. The actuarial distant metastatic rates at 5 and 10 years were 30% and 34%, respectively. Patients who were controlled in the pelvis (114) had significantly lower rates of developing distant metastases at 5 and 10 years (21% and 22%, respectively) compared with patients who failed in the pelvis (49) with rates of 59% and 84%, respectively. Multivariate analysis found that pelvic failure had the strongest association with the development of distant metastases. Using the formula of Suit et al to assess potential improvement in cure from perfect local and distant control, survival advantages from increased local and distant control were 24% and 21%, respectively. Of those patients who failed both locally and distantly (22), 27% failed distantly 6 months or more after failing locally. Early-stage node-positive cervical cancer is associated with both increased distant and local failure. There appear to be two patterns of disease spread: patients whose disease is locoregional, in whom improvements in local control can result in improved cure, and patients with biologically aggressive cancer, who probably have disseminated disease at presentation, in whom improved locoregional control will not be enough to increase survival but who require improved distant control.


2-(2-Aminoethyl)-quinoline (D-1997): a novel agonist at 5-hydroxytryptamine1-like receptors in the canine basilar artery.
This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms involved in the contractile effects produced by the novel quinoline derivative, 2-(2-aminoethyl)-quinoline (D-1997), in the canine isolated basilar artery. For comparison, the effects of D-1997 were also evaluated on rat aorta. Canine basilar artery and rat aortic rings were prepared and mounted in organ baths to record isometric tension changes. The contractile effects of D-1997 in the basilar artery were compared with those produced by 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and the 5-HT receptor agonist quipazine. Thus, 4-HT (10(-10)-10(-6)M), D-1997 (3.1 x 10(-8)-10(-4) M) and quipazine (3.1 x 10(-7)-10(-4) M) each caused concentration-dependent contractions of the canine basilar artery with a rank order of agonist potency of 5-HT > D-1997 > quipazine. 5-HT and D-1997 exhibited similar maximum effects which were higher than that of quipazine. Similar concentrations of D-1997 failed to produce contraction in rat aorta. The effects of D-1997 in the basilar artery were not modified by incubation with either the 5-HT2 receptor antagonist ketanserin (0.01-1 microM), the 5-HT3 and 5-HT4 receptor antagonist ICS205930 (tropisetron; 0.1-10 microM), the 5-HT1A receptor antagonist spiroxatrine (0.01-1 microM), the beta-adrenoceptor blocker with high affinity for 5-HT1A and 5-HT1B binding sites (+/-)-pindolol (0.01-1 microM), or the alpha 1-adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin (0.01-1 microM). In contrast, the D-1997-induced responses were potently and concentration-dependently antagonized by the mixed 5-HT1-like and 5-HT2 receptor antagonist methiothepin (0.01-1 microM). It is concluded that D-1997 contracts the canine basilar artery by stimulating 5-HT1-like receptors unrelated to either the 5-HT1A or 5-HT1B receptor subtypes. The compound seems to be devoid of 5-HT2 receptor agonist properties in rat aorta.


Cholesterol depletion enhances TGF-β Smad signaling by increasing c-Jun expression through a PKR-dependent mechanism.
Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) plays critical roles in numerous physiological and pathological responses. Cholesterol, a major plasma membrane component, can have pronounced effects on signaling responses. Cells continually monitor cholesterol content and activate multilayered transcriptional and translational signaling programs, following perturbations to cholesterol homeostasis (e.g., statins, the commonly used cholesterol-reducing drugs). However, the cross-talk of such programs with ligand-induced signaling responses (e.g., TGF-β signaling) remained unknown. Here, we studied the effects of a mild reduction in free (membrane-associated) cholesterol on distinct components of TGF-β-signaling pathways. Our findings reveal a new regulatory mechanism that enhances TGF-β-signaling responses by acting downstream from receptor activation. Reduced cholesterol results in PKR-dependent eIF2α phosphorylation, which enhances c-Jun translation, leading in turn to higher levels of JNK-mediated c-Jun phosphorylation. Activated c-Jun enhances transcription and expression of Smad2/3. This leads to enhanced sensitivity to TGF-β stimulation, due to increased Smad2/3 expression and phosphorylation. The phospho/total Smad2/3 ratio remains unchanged, indicating that the effect is not due to altered receptor activity. We propose that cholesterol depletion induces overactivation of PKR, JNK, and TGF-β signaling, which together may contribute to the side effects of statins in diverse disease settings.


Recent developments in fetal DNA in maternal plasma.
It has been several years since the presence of fetal DNA in maternal plasma was first discovered. Numerous potential applications have been reported to date. However, the study of maternal plasma for the prenatal diagnosis of fetal genetic traits has largely centered on paternally inherited autosomal dominant traits. Recently, a number of approaches have been developed that allow the prenatal assessment of autosomal recessive conditions through fetal DNA analysis in maternal plasma. On the other hand, aberrations in fetal DNA concentrations in maternal plasma have been reported in a number of pregnancy-associated conditions. Recent studies have begun to address the possible underlying mechanisms causing such quantitative aberrations. Current studies on circulating fetal DNA have focused on the detection of the paternally inherited fetal-specific alleles in maternal plasma. However, it has been demonstrated that the development of fetal epigenetic markers has great potential to expand the field.


[Perioperative mangement of surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm associated with coronary artery disease].
Patients undergoing abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery are at increased risk of perioperative cardiovascular complications due to underlying coronary artery disease (CAD). We determined retrospectively the incidence of CAD and the influence of coronary revascularization and perioperative cardiovascular complications in patients for AAA surgery. Routine coronary angiography (CAG) was performed in 159 patients prior to elective AAA surgery to estimate the presence of CAD. To compare risk factors and perioperative cardiovascular complications the patients were divided at the time of CAG into three groups: previously diagnosed CAD, newly diagnosed CAD and non-CAD. Preoperative CAG found 129 patients (81%) with CAD. Among newly diagnosed patients 82% were asymptomatic of CAD. Forty-four patients (28%) underwent coronary revascularization (17 percutaneous coronary intervention, 3 preoperative coronary artery bypass grafting, and 24 combined coronary artery bypass grafting). Perioperative cardiac complications occurred in 35 patients (22%). No significant difference was found among the three groups in the incidence of perioperative cardiovascular complications. Two patients with severe CAD not treated with coronary revascularization died of cardiac events. Perioperative management and coronary revascularization should be carried out with more cautions in AAA patients to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular complications after AAA surgery.


Novel Genetic Findings in a Chinese Family with Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome.
To describe a Chinese family with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS) and report our novel genetic findings. Nine members of the same family underwent complete ophthalmologic examinations and genetic analysis. Genomic DNA was isolated from veinal blood and amplifed using PCR; the products of PCR were sequenced and compared with FOXC1 and PITX2 genes, from which the mutations were found. Through the ophthalmologic examinations, 8 subjects were diagnosed as ARS and 1 subject was normal. A homozygous mutation c.1139_1141dupGCG(p.Gly380_Ala381insGly) and a heterozygous mutation c.1359_1361dupCGG(p.Gly456_Gln457insGly) in FOXC1 were identified in all subjects. The mutation (c.-10-30T>C) was identified in PITX2 in subjects III-1 and III-3. We found novel gene mutations in a Chinese family with ARS, which provides us with a better understanding of the gene mutation spectrum of ARS and the assistance for the genetic counseling and gene-specific therapy in the future.


Is it what you see, or how you say it? Spatial bias in young and aged subjects.
Healthy subjects demonstrate leftward bias on visual-spatial tasks. However, young controls may also be left-biased when drawing communicatively, depicting the subject of a sentence leftward on a page relative to the sentence object, that is, a spatial-syntactic, implicit task. A leftward visual-spatial bias may decrease with aging, as right-hemisphere, dorsal, visual-spatial activation may be reduced in elderly subjects performing these tasks. We compared horizontal and radial (near-far) visual spatial bias, and spatial-syntactic bias, in healthy young and aged participants. Both horizontal and radial visual-spatial bias were smaller in aged participants when explicitly, but not implicitly assessed. Mean implicit far bias was greater in aged subjects, although this varied by task. We observed less implicit, spatial-syntactic left bias in aged than young participants. These results may be consistent with relatively less dominance of right hemisphere, dorsal spatial systems with aging.


[Influence of total pancreatectomy on the secretion of human growth hormone and the endocrine pancreas].
To evaluate the effect of total pancreatectomy on the secretion of human growth hormone, twenty-six patients undergoing total pancreatectomy and twelve healthy subjects (controls) were investigated. Blood glucose (BG), plasma insulin (IRI), C-peptide (CPR), immunoreactive glucagon (IRG) and human growth hormone (HGH) levels were determined. In the glucose tolerance test, the mean basal blood glucose level in the patients before operation was significantly higher than the level in the controls. The basal blood glucose level in the patients after operation was still higher than the level before operation. The responses of IRI, CPR, and IRG secretion after arginine infusion in the patients before operation were less than those in the controls. After operation, arginine infusion did not alter the levels of IRI, CPR and IRG. The mean basal HGH levels were not significantly different between the controls and the patients before and after operation. However, a statistically significant correlation was shown between the basal values of plasma HGH and those of plasma IRI in the patients after operation. Thus, it suggested that the basal secretion of HGH is closely related to the exogenous plasma insulin levels in the pancreatectomized patients. After arginine infusion, the HGH levels in the patients before operation were lower than the those in the controls, but insignificant. After operation, mean HGH levels were significantly lower than those before operation. These findings suggested the absence of pancreatic endocrine function caused by total pancreatectomy resulted in decreased responses of HGH secretion after arginine infusion.


Acoustic attenuation, phase and group velocities in liquid-filled pipes III: nonaxisymmetric propagation and circumferential modes in lossless conditions.
Equations for the nonaxisymmetric modes that are axially and circumferentially propagating in a liquid-filled tube with elastic walls surrounded by air/vacuum are presented using exact elasticity theory. Dispersion curves for the axially propagating modes are obtained and verified through comparison with measurements. The resulting theory is applied to the circumferential modes, and the pressures and the stresses in the liquid-filled pipe are calculated under external forced oscillation by an acoustic source. This provides the theoretical foundation for the narrow band acoustic bubble detector that was subsequently deployed at the Target Test Facility (TTF) of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), TN.


[Participation of Agouti related peptide in machanisms of wakefulness-sleep cycle regulation].
Agouti-related protein (AGRP) is expresses in hypothalamic neurons in human and animals. Immunohistochemical study in rats Wistar rats demonstrates significant changes AGRP optical density in the neurons of arcuate hypothalamic nucleus as well as in processes in the hypothalamus and nucleus accumbens after the 6 hours of sleep deprivation (increase) and after 2 hours of post-deprivative sleep (decrease). Comparison of these results with earlier obtained shows the opposite trend changes in AGRP optical density and speed limiting enzyme of dopamine synthesis-tyrosine hydroxylase in the hypothalamus and in striatonigral system. The increase of AGRP was accompanied by a decrease of tyrosine hydroxylase and the decrease of AGRP, apposite, it increases. The obtained data demonstrate the role ofAGRP as a modulator of the functional activity of the dopaminergic brain neurons. The problem of the relationship of various functions of organism (food behavior, sleep, stress) is discusses by their participation in the regulation of the same neurotransmitter systems.


Effects of Urea-Ammonium Nitrate Solution on Yield, N2O Emission, and Nitrogen Efficiency of Summer Maize Under Integration of Water and Fertilizer.
In order to clarify the effects of urea-ammonium nitrate solution (UAN) on the yield, nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE), and N2O emissions of summer maize under the condition of water and fertilizer integration, different types of nitrogen fertilizer were selected, namely, ordinary urea (urea) and UAN. Our results showed that the application of UAN was beneficial to improve the dry matter accumulation and the distribution of summer maize. Compared with urea treatment, the total nitrogen accumulation of UAN treatment was increased by 15.8%, and the harvest index was increased by 5.5%. The partial productivity, agronomic use efficiency, and recovery rate of nitrogen for UAN treatment were also increased by 9.1, 19.8, and 31.2%, respectively, compared to those of urea treatment. The soil nitrogen dependence rate treated with UAN was significantly decreased by 13.6%, compared to that of urea treatment. In addition, UAN was beneficial to reduce N2O emissions. The N2O warming potential (GWPN2O) and N2O greenhouse gas intensity (GHGIN2O) of urea treatment were 39.3 and 52.4% higher, compared to those of UAN treatment. The improvement of dry matter accumulation and distribution and nitrogen efficiency for UAN treatment were beneficial to increase the grain yield by 9.1%, compared to that of urea treatment. In conclusion, under the fertigation, the application of UAN favors higher yield and nitrogen uptake, with less soil nitrogen residue, higher NUE, and better environmental effect.


MRI-based patient-specific human carotid atherosclerotic vessel material property variations in patients, vessel location and long-term follow up.
Image-based computational models are widely used to determine atherosclerotic plaque stress/strain conditions and investigate their association with plaque progression and rupture. However, patient-specific vessel material properties are in general lacking in those models, limiting the accuracy of their stress/strain measurements. A noninvasive approach of combining in vivo 3D multi-contrast and Cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computational modeling was introduced to quantify patient-specific carotid plaque material properties for potential plaque model improvements. Vessel material property variation in patients, along vessel segment, and between baseline and follow up were investigated. In vivo 3D multi-contrast and Cine MRI carotid plaque data were acquired from 8 patients with follow-up (18 months) with written informed consent obtained. 3D thin-layer models and an established iterative procedure were used to determine parameter values of the Mooney-Rivlin models for the 81slices from 16 plaque samples. Effective Young's Modulus (YM) values were calculated for comparison and analysis. Average Effective Young's Modulus (YM) and circumferential shrinkage rate (C-Shrink) value of the 81 slices was 411kPa and 5.62%, respectively. Slice YM value varied from 70 kPa (softest) to 1284 kPa (stiffest), a 1734% difference. Average slice YM values by vessel varied from 109 kPa (softest) to 922 kPa (stiffest), a 746% difference. Location-wise, the maximum slice YM variation rate within a vessel was 311% (149 kPa vs. 613 kPa). The average slice YM variation rate for the 16 vessels was 134%. The average variation of YM values for all patients from baseline to follow up was 61.0%. The range of the variation of YM values was [-28.4%, 215%]. For plaque progression study, YM at follow-up showed negative correlation with plaque progression measured by wall thickness increase (WTI) (r = -0.7764, p = 0.0235). Wall thickness at baseline correlated with WTI negatively, with r = -0.5253 (p = 0.1813). Plaque burden at baseline correlated with YM change between baseline and follow-up, with r = 0.5939 (p = 0.1205). In vivo carotid vessel material properties have large variations from patient to patient, along the diseased segment within a patient, and with time. The use of patient-specific, location specific and time-specific material properties in plaque models could potentially improve the accuracy of model stress/strain calculations.


Constrained Superpixel Tracking.
In this paper, we propose a constrained graph labeling algorithm for visual tracking where nodes denote superpixels and edges encode the underlying spatial, temporal, and appearance fitness constraints. First, the spatial smoothness constraint, based on a transductive learning method, is enforced to leverage the latent manifold structure in feature space by investigating unlabeled superpixels in the current frame. Second, the appearance fitness constraint, which measures the probability of a superpixel being contained in the target region, is developed to incrementally induce a long-term appearance model. Third, the temporal smoothness constraint is proposed to construct a short-term appearance model of the target, which handles the drastic appearance change between consecutive frames. All these three constraints are incorporated in the proposed graph labeling algorithm such that induction and transduction, short- and long-term appearance models are combined, respectively. The foreground regions inferred by the proposed graph labeling method are used to guide the tracking process. Tracking results, in turn, facilitate more accurate online update by filtering out potential contaminated training samples. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluations on challenging tracking data sets show that the proposed constrained tracking algorithm performs favorably against the state-of-the-art methods.


Index of phagocyte activation based on luminescence of dehydrogenase coenzymes.
In the cytoplasm of activated neutrophils and monocytes of blood, as well as microphages and macrophages of festering wounds, the incubation with nitroblue tetrazolium results, in two types of autoluminescence. The blue luminescence as a result of reduced pyridine nucleotides (RP) characterizes the non-active state of phagocytes. The yellow-green luminescence due to oxygenated flavoproteins (OF) signifies the active state of phagocytes. The luminescence intensity ratio of OF to RP reflects the rate of energy output and is the energy index of phagocyte activation.


Reflecting on the true value of care.
The RCN's (2012) Principles of Nursing Practice are a set of statements about the characteristics of high quality nursing care. This article gives an overview of the principles and demonstrates through a personal reflection that emergency nurses can refer to them when planning and delivering compassionate and evidence-based care in complex settings.


Prospective study of dietary intake of branched-chain amino acids and the risk of primary open-angle glaucoma.
Metabolomic and preclinical studies suggest that branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) may be inversely associated with neurodegenerative diseases including glaucoma. We therefore assessed the long-term association between dietary intake of BCAA and incident primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and POAG subtypes. We followed biennially participants of the Nurses' Health Study (NHS; 65 531 women: 1984-2016), Health Professionals Follow-up Study (42 254 men: 1986-2016) and NHSII (66 904 women; 1991-2017). Eligible participants were 40+ years old and reported eye examinations. Repeated validated food frequency questionnaires were used to assess dietary intake of BCAA. Incident cases of POAG and POAG subtypes defined by visual field (VF) loss and untreated intraocular pressure (IOP) were confirmed by medical record review. Multivariable-adjusted relative risks (MVRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. We identified 1946 incident POAG cases. The pooled MVRRs of POAG for the highest quintile (Q5 = 17.1 g/day) versus lowest quintile (Q1 = 11.2 g/day) of total BCAA intake was 0.93 (95% CI, 0.73-1.19; ptrend = 0.45; pheterogeneity by sex = 0.24). For subtypes of POAG defined by IOP level or POAG with only peripheral VF loss, no associations were observed for men or women (ptrend ≥ 0.20); however, for the POAG subtype with early paracentral VF loss, there was a suggestion of an inverse association in women (MVRRQ5versusQ1 = 0.80 [95% CI, 0.57-1.12; ptrend = 0.12]) but not in men (MVRRQ5versusQ1 = 1.38 [95% CI, 0.81-2.34; ptrend = 0.28; pheterogeneity by sex = 0.06]). Higher dietary intake of BCAA was not associated with POAG risk.


Dietary diversity, feeding selectivity, and responses to fruit scarcity of two sympatric Bornean primates (Hylobates albibarbis and Presbytis rubicunda rubida).
Effectively characterizing primate diets is fundamental to understanding primate behavior, ecology and morphology. Examining temporal variation in a species' diet, as well as comparing the responses of different species to variation in resource availability, can enhance understanding of the evolution of morphology and socioecology. In this study, we use feeding data collected over five years to describe the diets of two sympatric Southeast Asian primate species of similar body size: white-bearded gibbons (Hylobates albibarbis) and red leaf monkeys (Presbytis rubicunda rubida), in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Long-term data sets are especially important for characterizing primate diets in Southeast Asia, where the forests exhibit supra-annual mast fruiting events. We found that gibbons were mainly frugivorous, with fruit and figs comprising 70% of their 145 independent feeding observations, whereas leaf monkeys ate a substantial amount of seeds (26%), fruits and figs (26.5%) and leaves (30%, n = 219 independent feeding observations). Leaf monkeys consumed a higher number of plant genera, and this was due mostly to the non-frugivorous portion of their diet. To investigate resource selection by these primates we utilized two different approaches: the Manly Selectivity Ratio, which did not take into account temporal variation of resource availability, and a model selection framework which did incorporate temporal variation. Both species selected figs (Ficus) more than predicted based on their availability under the Manly Selectivity Ratio. Model selection allowed us to determine how these primates alter the proportion of leaves, flowers, seeds, figs and fruit in their diets in response to variation in fruit availability. When fruits were scarce, both gibbons and leaf monkeys incorporated more leaves and figs into their diets, indicating that these two food classes are fallback foods for these primates. We discuss how different measures of resource selection can provide seemingly contradictory results, and emphasize the importance of long term studies that combine independent feeding observations with rigorous assessment of temporal variation in resource availability when modelling feeding selectivity.