P-MITE: a database for plant miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements.
Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are prevalent in eukaryotic species including plants. MITE families vary dramatically and usually cannot be identified based on homology. In this study, we de novo identified MITEs from 41 plant species, using computer programs MITE Digger, MITE-Hunter and/or Repetitive Sequence with Precise Boundaries (RSPB). MITEs were found in all, but one (Cyanidioschyzon merolae), species. Combined with the MITEs identified previously from the rice genome, >2.3 million sequences from 3527 MITE families were obtained from 41 plant species. In general, higher plants contain more MITEs than lower plants, with a few exceptions such as papaya, with only 538 elements. The largest number of MITEs is found in apple, with 237 302 MITE sequences. The number of MITE sequences in a genome is significantly correlated with genome size. A series of databases (plant MITE databases, P-MITE), available online at http://pmite.hzau.edu.cn/django/mite/, was constructed to host all MITE sequences from the 41 plant genomes. The databases are available for sequence similarity searches (BLASTN), and MITE sequences can be downloaded by family or by genome. The databases can be used to study the origin and amplification of MITEs, MITE-derived small RNAs and roles of MITEs on gene and genome evolution.


Nonstomatal Inhibition of Net CO(2) Uptake by (+/-) Abscisic Acid in Pharbitis nil.
(+/-) Abscisic acid (ABA) injected into petioles of attached transpiring leaves of Pharbitis nil Chois. cv violet reduced the photosynthetic capacity of the mesophyll of these leaves as well as the stomatal conductance to CO(2) diffusion. Greater than 75% of the injected ABA was recovered as ABA, suggesting that ABA rather than some metabolite thereof was the active compound. The nonstomatal effect of ABA increased from 30% reduction in photosynthesis at 0.25 micromolar ABA in the leaf blade to 90% reduction at 18 micromolar. Despite the effect of ABA on the nonstomatal component of leaf net CO(2) uptake, it was calculated that a substantial part of the reduction in leaf net CO(2) uptake (50-80%) could be accounted for by the effect of ABA on stomatal conductance.


Up-regulation of microRNA-302a inhibited the proliferation and invasion of colorectal cancer cells by regulation of the MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways.
Aberrant expression of microRNA-302a (miR-302a) has been frequently reported in some cancers excluding colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the role of miR-302a in CRC has not been reported. In this paper, we examined the effect of miR-302a overexpression on proliferation and invasion in CRC cells. The mRNA level of miR-302a in CRC cell lines was determined by real-time PCR. The miR-302a mimic was transiently transfected into CRC cells using Lipofectamine™ 2000 reagent. Subsequently, cell proliferation and invasion were assessed by MTT and Transwell assays. Western blot and ELISA assay were used to detect the expressions and secretions of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Moreover, the expressions of epithelial marker, mesenchymal markers and transcription factors were also determined by Western blot. In addition, the effects of miR-302a overexpression on the MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways were investigated by Western blot. Our results showed that the mRNA level of miR-302a was remarkably decreased in CRC cell lines compared with normal colon epithelium cells. Up-regulation of miR-302a inhibited the proliferation and invasion of CRC cells. The expressions and secretions of MMP-9 and -2 were evidently reduced by increasing miR-302a. Besides, we found a decrease of β-catenin, fibronection, vimentin, Snail, Slug, ZEB1 and ZEB2 expressions and an increase of E-cadherin expression. We also found that miR-302a overexpression might decrease the phosphorylation of Erk1/2 and Akt. Altogether, our results indicated that miR-302a overexpression was shown to inhibit proliferation and invasion of CRC cells by reducing the expressions of related proteins through suppressing the MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways.


Antioxidant Enzymes and Lipid Peroxidation in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with and without Nephropathy.
Oxidative stress has been considered to be a pathogenic factor of diabetic complications including nephropathy. There are many controversies and limited studies regarding the antioxidant enzymes in diabetic nephropathy. This study was to evaluate the levels of antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation in Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients with and without nephropathy. The study included 90 age and sex matched subjects. Blood samples of all subjects were analyzed for all biochemical and oxidative stress parameters. The malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and catalase (CAT) activity were significantly increased and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) were significantly decreased in Type-2 DM with and without nephropathy as compared to controls and also in Type-2 DM with nephropathy as compared to Type-2 DM without nephropathy. There were an excellent positive correlation of glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) with MDA and a good negative correlation of GPx with GSH in controls. There were positive correlations of GR, CAT, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) with MDA in Type-2 diabetes patients with nephropathy. Intensity of oxidative stress in Type-2 diabetic patients with nephropathy is greater when compared with Type-2 diabetic patients without nephropathy as compared to the controls.


[Analysis on characteristics and influencing factors of COVID-19 confirmed cases with viral nucleic acid re-positive after discharge in Guangdong Province].
Objective: To analyze the epidemiological characteristics and influencing factors of COVID-19 confirmed cases with viral nucleic acid re-positive in anal and/or throat swabs after discharge during the domestic imported epidemic stage in Guangdong Province in early 2020. Methods: The COVID-19 confirmed cases with the onset time before March 1, 2020 in Guangdong Province were collected to analyze the demographic data, epidemiological characteristics, and specimen collection and testing data after discharge. Logistic regression model was used for influencing factors analysis of re-positive cases. Results: A total of 1 286 COVID-19 confirmed cases were included, the M(Q1,Q3) of age was 44(32,58)years, 617 cases were male, 224 cases were re-positive in anal and/or throat swabs with the re-positive rate 17.42%. The M(Q1,Q3) of age of re-positive cases was 35(23, 50) years, which was younger than that of re-negative cases age was those 46(33, 59) years (P<0.001). With the increase of age, re-positive rate decreased (χ2trend=52.73, P<0.001). 85.27% (191/224) of re-positive cases were found in 14 d after discharge, the duration time of re-positive status was 13(7, 24) d, and 81.69% (183/224) of re-positive cases were re-tested negative in 28 d after re-positive date. No fever and other symptoms had been observed among re-positive cases during the whole follow-up. No secondary infectious cases had been found among close contacts after 14 d of centralized isolation and sampling screening. Univariate logistic regression model analysis revealed that the influencing factors of the re-positive cases included age, occupation, clusters, clinical types, and admission time. Multivariate logistic regression model analysis revealed that age was an independent risk factor. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 viral nucleic acid re-positive is found in COVID-19 confirmed cases after discharge in Guangdong Province. Most re-positive cases are confirmed among 14 d after discharge and re-test to negative among 28 d after re-positive date. Age is an risk factor for re-positive cases after discharge.


Out-of-hospital pediatric cardiac arrest: an epidemiologic review and assessment of current knowledge.
We systematically summarize pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest epidemiology and assess knowledge of effects of specific out-of-hospital interventions. We conducted a comprehensive review of published articles from 1966 to 2004, available through MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EmBase, and the Cochrane Registry, describing outcomes of children younger than 18 years with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Patient characteristics, process of care, and outcomes were compared using pediatric Utstein outcome report guidelines. Effects of out-of-hospital care processes on survival outcomes were summarized. Forty-one studies met inclusion criteria; 8 complied with Utstein reporting guidelines. Included in the review were 5,363 patients: 12.1% survived to hospital discharge, and 4% survived neurologically intact. Trauma patients (n=2,299) had greater overall survival (21.9%, 6.8% intact); a separate examination of studies with more rigorous cardiac arrest definition showed poorer survival (1.1% overall, 0.3% neurologically intact). Submersion injury-associated arrests (n=442) had greater overall survival (22.7%, 6% intact). Pooled data analysis of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and witnessed arrest status showed increased likelihood of survival (relative risk 1.99, 95% confidence interval 1.54 to 2.57) for witnessed arrests. The effect of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation is difficult to determine because of study heterogeneity. Outcomes from out-of-hospital pediatric cardiac arrest are generally poor. Variability may exist in survival by patient subgroups, but differences are hard to accurately characterize. Conformity with Utstein guidelines for reporting and research design is incomplete. Witnessed arrest status remains associated with improved survival. The need for prospective controlled trials remains a high priority.


Elevation of brain natriuretic peptide levels in children with septic shock.
1) To compare brain natriuretic peptide levels in pediatric patients with septic shock with both children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit without infection and with healthy subjects; and 2) to evaluate the correlation between brain natriuretic peptide with severity of illness and with myocardial dysfunction in children with septic shock. : Prospective, observational study. Children's Hospital pediatric intensive care unit. Children from age 2 wks to 18 yrs. Thirteen children with septic shock requiring inotropic support, 12 healthy controls, and five critically ill patients without infection or heart disease were evaluated. For patients with septic shock, brain natriuretic peptide was measured within 6 hrs of admission and throughout the pediatric intensive care unit course. Echocardiograms were performed within 12 hrs of admission and then repeated if the patient continued to require inotropic support. For controls, one measurement was performed. Children with septic shock had an elevated (p < 0.0001) brain natriuretic peptide on admission (median 115 pg/mL [range 26-2960]) when compared with healthy (9 pg/mL [5-30]) and pediatric intensive care unit controls (10 pg/mL [5-30]). In patients with septic shock, brain natriuretic peptide at 12 hrs correlated directly with Pediatric Risk of Mortality III score (rs = .80, p = 0.002) and inversely with fractional shortening (rs = -.66, p = 0.014). In children with cold shock, brain natriuretic peptide at 12 hrs (718 pg/mL) [63-1530] was higher (p = 0.007) than in those with warm shock (208 pg/mL [20-366]). There was no pattern (p > 0.05) observed for brain natriuretic peptide over time. Brain natriuretic peptide measured early after admission is increased in children with septic shock, especially in those with cold shock. In addition, the level at 12 hrs correlates with both severity of illness and myocardial dysfunction. Brain natriuretic peptide may be useful in assessing myocardial dysfunction from septic shock, particularly in identifying children with cold shock. Further studies are warranted to determine whether this measurement will be helpful in guiding therapy in pediatric septic shock.


Pituitary-adrenal and pituitary-thyroid hormone responses during exercise-cold exposure after 7 days of exhaustive exercise.
After several days of exhaustive exercise in mild-warm environments, cutaneous vasoconstrictor responses to cold exposure are less effective in conserving body heat than in the rested condition. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axes hormones could mediate this response since they may affect vasoconstriction. The effects of exertional fatigue on pituitary-adrenal hormones and thyroid hormone responses to exercise-cold stress are unknown. We hypothesized that 7 consecutive days of exercise would decrease adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and cortisol, while elevating thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) and that these hormones would be related to a blunted vasoconstrictor response to cold. Nine male volunteers walked, completely wetted, for up to 6 h in 5 degrees C air, when rested (day 0, control) and after 7 consecutive days (day 7) of exhaustive exercise (4 h each day of mixed aerobic and anaerobic activities in thermoneutral conditions). Blood was sampled on day 0 and day 7 at baseline (0700 hours), and before and immediately after cold exposure. At 0700 hours, ACTH and cortisol were elevated (p < 0.05) after 7 d of exercise, compared with control conditions. Following exercise-cold exposure, cortisol, T3, and T4 increased (p < 0.05) similarly on both day 0 and day 7. ACTH and TSH did not increase as a result of exercise-cold exposure on either day. These data indicate that 7 d of exercise elevates basal (0700 hours) pituitary-adrenal stress hormones (ACTH, cortisol). However, 7 d of exercise did not modify adrenal or thyroid hormone responses, relative to the day 0 cold exposure, suggesting that they are not responsible for the blunted vasoconstriction during exercise-cold exposure following 7 consecutive days of exercise.


Cell sources for cardiac regeneration--which cells and why.
Realizing the promise of therapeutic cardiac regeneration requires the targeting of accessible cell sources to promote neomyogenesis for the injured heart. After initial trials with cardiac myocytes and skeletal muscle progenitor cells (myoblasts), the rapid advances of stem cell technology have established the feasibility of endogenous stem cells to serve as donor cells for cellular cardiomyoplasty. In particular, bone marrow-derived stem cells have a great potential for clinical application due to their extracardiac locale and capacity to give rise to functional cardiac myocytes. The recent identification of resident cardiac stem cells also offers the opportunity to regenerate the infarcted myocardium, using the cells from the heart for ex vivo expansion or as targets for in vivo induction. To this end, future advances in cellular cardiomyoplasty may likely be based on therapies stimulating the trophic/cellular interactions that direct exogenous/endogenous stem cell-mediated cardiac regeneration.


Biosynthetic transport of the asialoglycoprotein receptor H1 to the cell surface occurs via endosomes.
Signals for endocytosis and for basolateral and lysosomal sorting are closely related in a number of membrane proteins, suggesting similar sorting mechanisms at the plasma membrane and in the trans-Golgi network (TGN). We tested the hypothesis that basolateral membrane proteins are transported to the cell surface via endosomes for the asialoglycoprotein receptor H1. This protein was tagged with a tyrosine sulfation site (H1TS) to allow specific labeling with [35S]sulfate in the TGN. Madin-Darby canine kidney cells expressing H1TS were pulse-labeled and chased for a period of time insufficient for labeled H1TS to reach the cell surface. Upon homogenization and gradient centrifugation, fractions devoid of TGN were subjected to immunoisolation of compartments containing mannose 6-phosphate receptor, which served as an endosomal marker. H1TS in transit to the cell surface was efficiently coisolated, whereas a labeled secretory protein and free glycosaminoglycan chains were not. This indicates an indirect pathway for the asialoglycoprotein receptor to the plasma membrane via endosomes and has important implications for protein sorting in the TGN and endosomes.


Facial flushing secondary to hypoglycemia.
Facial flushing is usually not associated with hypoglycemia. Diabetics treated with chlorpropamide can have an antabuse-like flushing with ingestion of alcohol, but flushing secondary to hypoglycemia per se has not been reported. The first case demonstrating that facial flushing can occur in insulin-induced hypoglycemia is described. This patient had marked erythematous facial flushing that was repeatable with each instance of hypoglycemia. Endocrine evaluation revealed no evidence of carcinoid or a pheochromocytoma in this patient and the facial flushing was unrelated to alcohol. Without insulin-induced hypoglycemia, this diabetic patient has had no further facial flushing in one year follow-up.


Determination of binding kinetics using whispering gallery mode microcavities.
Silica optical microcavity sensors show great promise in the kinetic evaluation of binding pairs, fundamental in understanding biomolecular interactions. Here, we develop and demonstrate a novel platform, based on bioconjugated silica microsphere resonators, to study the binding kinetics of the biotin-streptavidin system. We characterize the optical performance, verify the covalent attachment of biotin to the surface, and perform streptavidin detection experiments. We perform preliminary kinetic analysis of the detection data which shows the potential of whispering gallery mode resonators in the determination of the dissociation constant of the binding pair, which is in good agreement with previously published values.


Telomerase as an anti-cancer target: current status and future prospects.
As is common with a newly discovered cancer-associated gene/protein, there is a lag between the elucidation of its cellular and molecular biology and appropriate therapeutic intervention. Telomerase represents an interesting and promising anticancer drug target but poses a particular drug discovery challenge. It is unclear at present what is the optimum means of targeting this complex ribonucleoprotein and associated telomeric DNA and binding proteins: various strategies are actively being explored. Some recent data (e.g. 2-5A antisense against telomeric RNA, targeting TRF2, introduction of dominant-negative hTERT into cells) has raised doubts over the previously presumption of a requirement for prolonged enzyme inhibition with gradual telomere erosion, especially in tumour cells with relatively short telomeres. Highly potent and selective in vivo inhibitors are required to validate the target and address these critical issues.


Intentional Switching Between Bimanual Coordination Patterns.
Previous theoretical and empirical work indicates that intentional changes in a bimanual coordination pattern depends on the stability of the bimanual coordination pattern (Kelso, Schotz, & Schöner, 1988; Scholz & Kelso, 1990). The present experiments retest this notion when online Lissajous displays are provided. Switching to and from in-phase and antiphase and to and from 90° and 270° were tested in Experiment 1. Participants were able to very effectively produce the 180°, 90°, and 270° coordination patterns although performance of the in-phase coordination task was even more stable. The data indicated that switching to in-phase from antiphase was more rapid than vice versa and that switching times between 90° to 270° were similar. Experiment 2 investigated switching between 1:2 and 2:1 bimanual coordination patterns. The results indicated that switching time was similar between the 2:1 and 1:2 coordination tasks and that increases in stability over practice resulted in additional decreases in switching times. This provides additional evidence that the attractor landscape is fundamentally different dependent on the type of information provided the performer. What remains to be done is to reconcile these results with the various theories/perspectives currently used to describe and explain bimanual coordination.


Overcoming inhibition in the spindle checkpoint.
Spindle checkpoint silencing is a critical step during mitosis that initiates chromosome segregation, yet surprisingly little is known about its mechanism. Protein phosphatase I (PP1) was shown recently to be a key player in this process, and in this issue of Genes & Deverlopment, Akiyoshi and colleagues (pp. 2887-2899) identify budding yeast Fin1p as a kinetochore-localized regulator of PP1 activity toward checkpoint targets. Here we review recent mechanistic insights and propose a working model for spindle checkpoint silencing.


Antioxidant potential of vitamins A, E and C in modulating oxidative stress in rat brain.
Stress is known to affect synaptic plasticity, dendritic morphology and induces neurotoxic damage in humans, probably through generation of free radicals. Both ex vivo antioxidant vitamins and in vivo free radical scavenging enzymes exist. In the present study, restraint stress induced pro-oxidant status of rat brain was evaluated in terms of measurement of glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, TBARS) and free radical scavenging enzymes activities. The efficacy of antioxidant vitamins A, E and C alone and in combination was also evaluated in modulating inherent antioxidant system in stressed rats. Rats were treated with vit A, E and C alone (15 mg/kg of body weight) and in combination vitamins (E and C) prior to and after 6 h of restraint stress exposure. Both nonstressed and stressed rats were handled simultaneously. Pro-oxidant status of brain tissue was evaluated by determining the levels of GSH, TBARS and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and catalase (CAT). Restraint stress induced a decrease in the level of GSH and the activities of SOD, GST and catalase, while the levels of TBARS were found elevated. Both pre-stress and post-stress vitamin treatments (either alone or combined) resulted in alteration of these parameters towards their controls values with a relative dominance by latter. Vitamin E was found most effective in restoring inherent antioxidant system, no additive effect was observed in combined vitamin treatment as expected. Immobilization of rats generated oxidative stress in rat brain, by decreasing the activities of SOD, GST, catalase and glutathione levels, while increasing the lipid peroxidation. Post stress vitamin E treatment was found most effective than vitamins A and C in enhancing the levels of glutathione and activities of SOD, GST and catalase and decreasing lipid peroxidation. Thus vitamin E can be given as a nutritional supplement for scavenging free radical generated in the brain tissues in order to reduce oxidative stress.


Photocycloadditions in disparate chemical environments.
We elucidate the wavelength dependence of a photocycloaddition by (i) accessing action plots dependent on the reactivity relative to the number of absorbed photons, (ii) establishing the effect on substrate concentration on photochemical reactivity and (iii) determining wavelength-dependent reactivity as a function of the solvent environment, comparing acetonitrile with dimethyl sulfoxide.


Changes in carbonic anhydrase may be the initial step of altered metabolism in hypertension.
Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a well characterized pH regulatory enzyme in most of the tissues in the body. Changes in activities of CA have been associated with altered metabolism, especially in diabetes mellitus. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are common in hypertension. To investigate the possible role of CA, we measured the CA activity spectrophotometrically using p-nitrophenyl acetate as a substrate and acetazolamide, the specific inhibitor, in erythrocytes from normotensive and essential hypertensive subjects. Further, to evaluate the insulin action on CA, we used two different hemolysates; (i) insulin applied into hemolysate and (ii) hemolysate from insulin treated erythrocytes in vitro before the determination of CA activity. Two different levels of CA activities were obtained in these patients. CA activities were much lower (mean +/- SD, 0.88 +/- 0.19 U/min/mL) and higher (mean +/- SD, 1.77 +/- 0.23 U/min/mL) in patients than the normotensive controls (mean +/- 1 SD, 1.41 +/- 0.1 U/min/mL). These differences in both the groups were statistically significant (p less than 0.001). Similarly, total esterase activities in patients were (1.41 +/- 0.27 U/min/mL) that was 30% less in low activity group and (2.47 +/- 0.25 U/min/mL) that was 22% more in higher activity group in comparison with those from normotensives (2.02 +/- 0.17 U/min/mL). The relative percent of CA activities of insulin treated erythrocytes from normotensives and hypertensives were 11% and 18% higher than without insulin (p less than 0.05). No difference was observed when insulin was applied in the hemolysate. We conclude that essential hypertensive patients are associated with altered CA activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


How a Turtle's Shell Helps It Survive Prolonged Anoxic Acidosis.
Anoxic turtles accumulate high levels of lactate in blood. To avoid fatal acidosis, turtles exploit buffer reserves in their large mineralized shell. The shell acts by releasing calcium and magnesium carbonates and by storing and buffering lactic acid. Together with profound metabolic depression, shell buffering permits survival without oxygen for several months at 3 degrees C.


Resource availability drives bacteria community resistance to pathogen invasion via altering bacterial pairwise interactions.
Microbial interactions within resident communities are a major determinant of resistance to pathogen invasion. Yet, interactions vary with environmental conditions, raising the question of how community composition and environments interactively shape invasion resistance. Here, we use resource availability (RA) as a model parameter altering the resistance of model bacterial communities to invasion by the plant pathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum. We found that at high RA, interactions between resident bacterial species were mainly driven by the direct antagonism, in terms of the means of invader inhibition. Consequently, the competitive resident communities with a higher production of antibacterial were invaded to a lesser degree than facilitative communities. At low RA, bacteria produced little direct antagonist potential, but facilitative communities reached a relatively higher community productivity, which showed higher resistance to pathogen invasion than competitive communities with lower productivities. This framework may lay the basis to understand complex microbial interactions and biological invasion as modulated by the dynamic changes of environmental resource availability.


A Progressive Subnetwork Searching Framework for Dynamic Inference.
Deep neural network (DNN) model compression is a popular and important optimization method for efficient and fast hardware acceleration. However, the compressed model is usually fixed, without the capability to tune the computing complexity (i.e., latency in hardware) on-the-fly, depending on dynamic latency requirements, workloads, and computing hardware resource allocation. To address this challenge, dynamic DNN with run-time adaption of computing structures has been constructed through training with a cross-entropy objective function consisting of multiple subnets sampled from the supernet. Our investigations in this work show that the performance of dynamic inference highly relies on the quality of subnet sampling. To construct a dynamic DNN with multiple high-quality subnets, we propose a progressive subnetwork searching framework, which is embedded with several proposed new techniques, including trainable noise ranking, channel-group sampling, selective fine-tuning, and subnet filtering. Our proposed framework empowers the target dynamic DNN with higher accuracy for all the subnets compared with prior works on both the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research dataset with 10 classes (CIFAR-10) and ImageNet datasets. Specifically, compared with United States-Neural Network (US-NN), our method achieves 0.9% average accuracy gain for Alexnet, 2.5% for ResNet18, 1.1% for Visual Geometry Group (VGG)11, and 0.58% for MobileNetv1, on the ImageNet dataset, respectively. Moreover, to demonstrate run-time tuning of computing latency of dynamic DNN in real computing system, we have deployed our constructed dynamic networks into Nvidia Titan graphics processing unit (GPU) and Intel Xeon central processing unit (CPU), showing great improvement over prior works. The code is available at https://github.com/ASU-ESIC-FAN-Lab/Dynamic-inference.


Atrial fibrillation during acute myocardial infarction: association with all-cause mortality and sudden death after 7-year of follow-up.
Atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF/FL) is a common complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Indeed, the determinants of AF/FL in AMI-patients and the association of AF/FL with mortality are not well-known. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between presence of AF/FL and mortality in patients with AMI and to report on predictors of AF/FL. We studied 505 patients enrolled in three intensive care units with definite AMI and followed up for 7 years. No patient was lost to follow-up. Patients with AF/FL during the 1st week of hospitalisation were compared with those with steady sinus rhythm. End-points were all-cause mortality and modes of death. At multivariable logistic regression analysis, elderly, body mass index, congestive heart failure (CHF), history of hypertension and plasma cholesterol (in a negative fashion) were independently associated with the presence of AF/FL. At survival analysis, after full adjustment, AF/FL was not associated with in-hospital mortality. After 7 years of follow-up, AF/FL was found to be associated with all-cause mortality [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.2-2.3], together with age, diabetes mellitus, creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme (CK-MB) peak, CHF, estimated glomerular filtration rate and thrombolysis. At adjusted logistic polynomial regression analysis, AF/FL was found to be associated with an excess of mortality for reasons of sudden death (SD) (adjusted OR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.2-6.4). No interaction was observed between AF/FL and medications on in-hospital mortality. For 7-year mortality, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitors and digitalis showed an independent negative (protective) interaction chiefly on SD (adjusted OR = 0.06; 95% CI = 0.01-0.74, and RR = 0.10; 95% CI = 0.02-0.58, respectively). Patients with AMI and AF/FL portend a poor prognosis in the long-term chiefly because of an excess of SD. Treatment with ACE-inhibitors and digitalis may have long-term beneficial effects on SD.


A chromatography-free total synthesis of a ferrocene-containing dendrimer exhibiting the property of recognizing 9,10-diphenylanthracene.
Molecules comprising several ferrocene residues constitute an intriguing group of compounds for various applications. Here, the total synthesis of a new example of a ferrocene-containing dendrimer is presented. The target compound was obtained in excellent combined yield (65%) employing facile, chromatography-free methods at each step. Interesting findings, meeting the dynamic covalent chemistry concept, are reported. Cyclic voltammetry analyses revealed one pair of current signals for the ferrocene moieties. Ultimately, the synthesized ferrocene-containing dendrimer has been used as an innovative recognition material for 9,10-diphenylanthracene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, with the limit of detection value equal to 0.06 μM.


Psychometric evaluation and tests of validity of the Medical Outcomes Study 12-item Sleep Scale (MOS sleep).
To validate the psychometric properties of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Sleep Scale in subjects with restless legs syndrome (RLS). Data from a clinical trial program involving two Phase III, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of ropinirole in subjects with moderate-to-severe primary RLS were analyzed. Subjects were assessed on the MOS Sleep Scale at baseline, Weeks 8 and 12. The baseline validation population included 551 subjects on which full longitudinal data are available. Psychometric assessment of four MOS sleep domains revealed satisfactory item convergent validity (r > 0.40) for most items. All domain items in both trials surpassed the standard for item discriminant validity, with no significant floor or ceiling effects. The MOS sleep domain scores showed good internal consistency reliability. Concurrent validity (r = 0.40) was exceeded in correlations between the RLS overall quality-of-life score and sleep problems index II. The clinical validity of the MOS Sleep Scale was demonstrated against self-reported RLS symptoms and clinician-determined severity; changes in MOS Sleep Scale were responsive to improvements in RLS severity, as measured by the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement and Severity-of-Illness scales. The MOS Sleep Scale is a reliable, valid tool for assessing changes in the sleep of subjects with moderate-to-severe primary RLS. The somnolence domain failed to relate to clinical severity of RLS, indicating a possible sleep-wake relationship unique to RLS. Use of this scale to evaluate other conditions causing sleep disturbance is supported.


Epidemiological cut-off values for Vibrio anguillarum MIC and disc diffusion data generated by standardised methods.
This work aims to generate the data needed to set epidemiological cut-off values for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and disc-diffusion zone measurements of Vibrio anguillarum. A total of 261 unique isolates were tested, applying standard methods specifying incubation at 28°C for 24-28 h. Aggregated MIC distributions for a total of 247 isolates were determined in 9 laboratories for 11 agents. Data aggregations of the disc zone for the 10 agents analysed contained between 157 and 218 observations made by 4 to 7 laboratories. Acceptable ranges for quality control (QC) reference strains were available for 7 agents and the related multi-laboratory aggregated data were censored, excluding the data of a laboratory that failed to meet QC requirements. Statistical methods were applied to calculate epidemiological cut-off values. Cut-off values for MIC data were calculated for florfenicol (≤1 µg ml-1), gentamicin (≤4 µg ml-1), oxytetracycline (≤0.25 µg ml-1) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (≤0.125/2.38 µg ml-1). The cut-off values for disc zone data were calculated for enrofloxacin (≥29 mm), florfenicol (≥27 mm), gentamicin (≥19 mm), oxolinic acid (≥24 mm), oxytetracycline (≥24 mm) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (≥26 mm). MIC and disc-diffusion zone data for the other agents where not supported by QC, thus yielding only provisional cut-off values (meropenem, ceftazidime). Regardless of whether QC is available, some of the aggregated MIC distributions (enrofloxacin, oxolinic acid), disc zone (sulfamethoxazole), and MIC and disc-diffusion distributions (ampicillin, chloramphenicol) did not meet the statistical requirements. The data produced will be submitted to the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute for their consideration in setting international consensus epidemiological cut-off values.


Antibody reactivity against potato apyrase, a protein that shares epitopes with Schistosoma mansoni ATP diphosphohydrolase isoforms, in acute and chronically infected mice, after chemotherapy and reinfection.
Schistosoma mansoni ATP diphosphohydrolase isoforms and potato apyrase share conserved epitopes. By enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, elevated levels of IgM, IgG2a and IgG1 antibody reactivity against potato apyrase were observed in S. mansoni-infected BALB/c mice during the acute phase of infection, while only IgM and IgG1 antibody reactivity levels maintained elevated during the chronic phase of infection. Antibody reactivity against potato apyrase was monitored over an 11-month period in chronically-infected mice treated with oxamniquine. Eleven months later, the level of seropositive IgM decreased significantly (approximately 30%) compared to the level found in untreated, infected mice. The level of seropositive IgG1 decreased significantly four months after treatment (MAT) (61%) and remained at this level even after 11 months. The IgG2a reactivity against potato apyrase, although unchanged during chronic phase to 11 MAT, appeared elevated again in re-infected mice suggesting a response similar to that found during the acute phase. BALB/c mouse polyclonal anti-potato apyrase IgG reacted with soluble egg antigens probably due to the recognition of parasite ATP diphosphohydrolase. This study, for the first time, showed that the IgG2a antibody from S. mansoni-infected BALB mice cross-reacts with potato apyrase and the level of IgG2a in infected mice differentiates disease phases. The results also suggest that different conserved-epitopes contribute to the immune response in schistosomiasis.


Planned Parenthood Association v. City of Cincinnati, 1 July 1987.
The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a city statute stipulating that "Every hospital and clinic in which abortions are performed . . . shall provide that the fetuses be interred, deposited in a vault or tomb, cremated, or otherwise disposed of in a manner approved by the Health Commissioner." On appeal of a decision granting the injunction, the Court first ruled that the plaintiffs, the operator and medical director of an abortion clinic, had standing. It also held that the injunction was properly granted since the plaintiffs had established a likelihood of prevailing on the merits of their claim due to the fact that part of the ordinance beginning "otherwise disposed of" was unconstitutionally vague.


L-selectin in patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID): a comparative study with normal individuals.
L-selectin in one of the key members of the selectin family of adhesion molecules and initiates leucocyte attachment to specialized high endothelial venules. The shed form, which retains functional activity, can be detected in biological fluids and is increased in diseases of many kinds. In the present study, we investigated L-selectin expression on leucocytes and measured the soluble form in the plasma of healthy individuals and patients with CVID. A significant loss of L-selectin expression is found on CVID B cells, which is marked by the presence of a substantial population of L-selectin-negative B cells in the peripheral blood of some CVID patients. On CD4+ T cells, the loss in L-selectin expression affects mostly the CD45RO+ population. Peripheral blood leucocytes other than lymphocytes express L-selectin molecule normally. Moreover, soluble L-selectin was detected in significantly increased levels in CVID plasma compared with healthy controls. Our data suggest that the loss of L-selectin expressed by lymphocytes may be due to increased or aberrant lymphocyte activation in CVID patients who remain immunodeficient, and down-regulation of L-selectin from these lymphocytes may significantly contribute to the elevated levels of soluble L-selectin in the plasma, which may in turn affect further lymphocyte trafficking.


Role of GDNF, GFRα1 and GFAP in a Bifidobacterium-Intervention Induced Mouse Model of Intestinal Neuronal Dysplasia.
To investigate the effects of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), GDNF family receptor alpha 1 (GFRα1), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) on colonic motility in a mouse model of intestinal neuronal dysplasia by intervention with Bifidobacterium and to explore the influence of Bifidobacterium on enteric glial cells (EGCs). Western blotting and qRT-PCR were employed to detect the expression of GFRα1 and GFAP in colonic tissues of mice with or without Tlx2 mutations, and ELISA was used to detect the expression of GDNF in serum. IHC was used to detect the appearance of the ganglion cells. Subsequently, Tlx2 homozygous mutant (Tlx2-/-) mice were treated with Bifidobacterium. Colonic motility was measured before and after intervention by measuring the glass bead expelling time. The variations in abdominal circumference and GDNF, GFRα1, and GFAP expression were measured. In addition, 16SrRNA gene sequencing was performed to detect the abundance of the intestinal microbiota. The mRNA and protein expression of GFRα1 and GFAP was decreased in the colonic tissues of Tlx2-/- mice and GDNF expression was decreased in serum compared with Tlx2+/- and WT mice. After confirming the colonization of Bifidobacterium by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the expelling time and abdominal distension were ameliorated, and the expression of GFAP, GDNF, and GFRα1 was increased. The expression of GDNF, GFRα1, and GFAP is associated with colonic motility. The altered expression of EGC-related factors suggested that Bifidobacterium may be involved in the EGC activation process. The amelioration of IND symptoms after intervention with Bifidobacterium prompted the elicitation of adjuvant therapy.


[Significant effects on alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) concentration in maternal serum in pregnancy].
The influence of oral contraceptives, nicotine, analgesics, thyroid hormones as well as the age of pregnant women, parity and later birth weight on the concentration of maternal serum AFP was examined in 200 patients to check the reliability of AFP determinations in serum of pregnant women. There were correlations only with nicotine consumption. The results confirmed an insignificant influence of these factors on maternal serum AFP and underlined the reliability and stability of this prenatal screening method.


Do non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs delay posterior capsule opacification after phacoemulsification in children? A randomized, prospective controlled trial.
To evaluate the efficacy of topical ketorolac for the prevention of posterior capsule opacification (PCO) in pediatric cataract surgery. The eyes were prospectively and randomly assigned to receive postoperative 3-month topical ketorolac 0.5% drops with intact posterior capsule (group 1) or primary posterior capsulotomy combined with anterior vitrectomy (group 2). All children had uneventful corneal small-incision phacoemulsification with a primary implantation of a foldable acrylic posterior chamber intraocular lens (IOL). The frequency and timing of severe PCO was evaluated for each group and documented by slit-lamp examination and photography. A total of 38 eyes of 27 children (15 girls, 12 boys) were included in the study. Among them 16 children had unilateral and 11 had bilateral surgery. All cataracts were developmental cases diagnosed between 1 and 7 years of age. There were 20 eyes in group 1 and 18 eyes in group 2. Mean pediatric age at surgery was 38.1 months (12-72 months) in group 1 and 34.2 months in group 2 children (12-78 months) (p>0.05). Overall mean follow up was 26.3 months (6-48 months). Clinically significant PCO that finally needed neodymium:YAG laser application developed in four eyes (20.0%) in group 1 and in two eyes (11.1%) in group 2, and the difference was not statistically significant (chi-square test, p >0.05). Long-term postoperative use of topical ketorolac drops with the preservation of posterior capsule was found to be effective for the prevention of PCO in pediatric cataract surgery, at least during the period of this study.


Efficacy of long-term tenofovir disoproxil fumarate therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients with partial virologic response in real practice.
The optimal management of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with partial virologic response (PVR) to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the long-term efficacy of prolonged TDF therapy in treatment-naïve CHB patients with PVR to TDF therapy in real practice. We retrospectively investigated the efficacy of prolonged TDF therapy in treatment-naïve CHB patients with PVR to TDF. PVR was defined as a decrease in serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA over 2 log10 IU/mL from baseline, with detectable HBV DNA by real-time polymerase chain reaction at week 48. We included 232 patients who underwent TDF therapy for over 48 weeks. Forty-two patients (18.1%) showed PVR. In multivariate analysis, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positivity, and high levels of serum HBV DNA at baseline and week 12 were independent predictive factors for PVR during TDF therapy. Out of 42 patients with PVR, 39 (92.9%) achieved virologic response (VR) during continuous TDF treatment; the cumulative VR rates at 24, 36, and 48 months were 79.8%, 88.2%, and 95.6%, respectively. With an additional 12 months of therapy, VR was achieved in 28/31 (90.3%) patients with HBV DNA < 100 IU/mL, compared to 5/11 (45.5%) patients with HBV DNA ≥ 100 IU/mL, at week 48. The vast majority of patients achieved VR through prolonged TDF therapy, thus TDF treatment can be maintained in nucleos(t)ide-naïve patients with PVR at week 48, especially in those with low viremia.


[Acute rejection: the diagnostic and therapeutic problems].
Acute allograft rejection is still a leading cause of both early and late mortality and morbidity after cardiac transplantation. Besides cell-mediated acute rejection, a "humoral" form exists which is more frequent in younger patients in the early postoperative period, and less likely to respond to the usual therapy. Cyclosporine therapy has deeply affected the clinical, laboratory and histological aspects of acute rejection. Though endomyocardial biopsy remains the most reliable diagnostic tool, other noninvasive procedures are of great value for a final diagnosis; among these are electrocardiography and two-dimensional echocardiography, which are the two elective techniques for post-transplantation follow-up in children. The laboratory and immunological assays, on the contrary, share a very low specificity. In conclusion, the diagnosis of acute rejection is still a clinical one, though supported by laboratory and histological evidence. In our experience, the natural evolution of many mild and mild-moderate rejection episodes toward regression does not support an excessive prophylaxis or an early treatment of symptom-free acute rejection. In addition, treatment of rejection must be personal and specific to each patient.


Oral Hygiene Status and Gingival Status of the 12- to 15-year-old Orphanage Children Residing in Delhi State: A Cross-sectional Study.
To assess oral hygiene status and practices among 12- to 15-year-old orphanage children in Delhi State, India. In this cross-sectional study, a one-stage cluster sampling design was carried out with orphanages as a cluster unit to assess oral hygiene status and practices among orphanage children in Delhi state, India. The majority of the orphanage children had good oral hygiene status (53.8%) followed by fair (32.3%) and poor (13.9%) oral hygiene status. A large proportion (48.3%) of the orphanage children had mild gingival status followed by moderate (34.9%) and severe (16.8%) gingival status. No statistical difference was reported for the distribution of oral hygiene status and gingival score across all the age-groups. Most (53%) of the orphanage children among all age-groups had good plaque status. The correlation of gingival index (GI) scores with plaque index (PI) score and oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S) scores showed a significant correlation of GI scores with PI scores (r = 0.815) and OHI-S scores (r = 0.799). The oral hygiene practices and oral hygiene status along with gingival status were found to be satisfactory among orphanage children in the present study. Gingival and periodontal diseases have a high prevalence among orphanages because of poor hygiene practices. Untreated oral diseases could lead to general health problems. Thus, the preventive strategies can be planned with the exact knowledge of the oral hygiene status of these special needs children in Delhi state. Kumari A, Marya C, Oberoi SS, et al. Oral Hygiene Status and Gingival Status of the 12- to 15-year-old Orphanage Children Residing in Delhi State: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(4):482-487.


Overcoming Fas-mediated apoptosis accelerates Helicobacter-induced gastric cancer in mice.
The initiating molecular events in Helicobacter-induced gastric carcinogenesis are not known. Early in infection, Fas antigen-mediated apoptosis depletes parietal and chief cell populations, leading to architectural distortion. As infection progresses, metaplastic and dysplastic glands appear, which are resistant to Fas-mediated apoptosis. These abnormal lineages precede, and are thought to be the precursor lesions of, gastric cancer. Acquisition of an antiapoptotic phenotype before transformation of cells suggests that loss of Fas sensitivity may be an early required trait for gastric cancer. We reasoned that forced Fas-apoptosis resistance would result in earlier and more aggressive gastric cancer in our mouse model. Fas antigen-deficient (lpr) mice or C57BL/6 wild-type mice were irradiated and reconstituted with C57BL/6 marrow forming partial lpr/wt chimera or wt/wt control mice, extending the life span of the lpr and ensuring a competent immune response to Helicobacter felis infection. Infected lpr/wt mice developed gastric cancer as early as 7 months after infection (compared with 15 months in wt/wt mice). At 10 months (90%) and 15 months (100%), mice developed aggressive invasive lesions. This earlier onset and more aggressive histology strongly argues that Fas-apoptosis resistance is an early and important feature of gastric cancer formation.


Pediatric Emergency Medicine Simulation Curriculum: Vitamin K Deficiency in the Newborn.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends vitamin K prophylaxis at birth for all newborns to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB). Despite a lack of evidence for serious harms, barriers to prophylaxis, including parental refusal, are rising, as are cases of VKDB. This simulation involved an infant presenting to the emergency department who decompensated due to a cerebral hemorrhage caused by VKDB and was treated by pediatric and emergency providers. The case was incorporated into the fellow and division monthly curricula, and participants completed postsimulation surveys. The patient required a secure airway, seizure management, vitamin K, and a fresh frozen plasma infusion upon suspicion of the diagnosis, plus a coordinated transfer to definitive care. The case included a description of the simulated case, learning objectives, instructor notes, an example of the ideal flow of the scenario, anticipated management mistakes, and educational materials. The simulations were carried out with 48 total participants, including 40 fellows and eight attendings, from five different training institutions over 1 year. In surveys, respondents gave overall positive feedback. Ninety-four percent of participants gave the highest score on a Likert scale indicating that the simulation was relevant, and over 80% gave the highest score indicating that the experience helped them with medical management. This simulation trained physicians how to recognize and treat a distressed infant with VKDB. The case was perceived to be an effective learning tool for both fellow and attending physicians.


Food allergy is a matter of geography after all: sesame as a major cause of severe IgE-mediated food allergic reactions among infants and young children in Israel.
To determine the prevalence, importance, and the order of frequency of IgE-mediated food allergens among infants and young children in Israel. In a cross-sectional study, the prevalence of IgE-mediated food allergy was investigated in 9070 infants and young children (0-2 years) who were followed-up at 23 Family Health Centers (FHCs) in central Israel. Patients with suspected IgE-mediated food allergic reactions, were recruited for further evaluation (detailed questionnaire and skin-prick test (SPT)). We identified 150 out of 9070 (1.7%) patients with suspected IgE-mediated food allergy. Among them, 102/150 (67%) [59 males, 43 females; mean age 10.3 months] completed a detailed questionnaire and underwent SPT. Evaluation revealed 131 positive SPTs in 78/102 (76.5%) patients. Twenty-seven positive SPTs in 18 patients were considered clinically irrelevant based on previous consumption of the relevant foods without clinical symptoms. Thus, there were 104 relevant positive SPTs in 78 patients. The overall prevalence of clinically relevant IgE-mediated food allergic reactions among these patients is estimated to be 1.2% (104/9070). The most common food allergens were egg, cow's milk, and sesame. Anaphylaxis was the presenting symptom in 14/78 (18%) including six sesame-induced cases. A history of other atopic diseases was reported in 27 (35%) patients. In addition, 22 (28%) had a history of atopy in first-degree family members. We found sesame to be a major cause of IgE-mediated food allergy in Israel. In fact, it is second only to cow's milk as a cause of anaphylaxis. We recommend that testing for food allergens be tailored to each community based on local experience and should include sesame in appropriate populations.


[Communication in the evaluation process of cancer clusters].
Communication is an essential but complex aspect of the management of a suspected cancer cluster. In this paper, it is summarized how this issue has been addressed in the guidelines on the management of cluster developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) in the US and by the Institut de Veille Sanitaire in France. The US guidelines recommend a communication strategy that includes a basic plan, which must be adapted to all steps of the process, a transparent communication, the involvement of the local community, the definition of the subjects involved, and the development of the necessary tools. The French guidelines emphasize that the management of these alarms is both a health and a policy issue, highlighting that this fact has important implications in the communication strategy. Guidelines are useful tools; however, they can lead to an excessive use of proceduralization if the ability to detect features of each cluster is not improved. It is therefore essential to create the opportunity to discuss and share experiences among stakeholders who are actually entitled to respond to these alarms. Some experiences of cancer cluster in Tuscany are used as examples.


Behavioural characterization of four endemic Stachys taxa.
We performed a basic behavioral characterization of methanol extracts of four Balkan endemic Stachys taxa: S. anisochila (SA), S. beckeana (SB), S. plumosa (SP) and S. alpina subsp. dinarica (SAD). The behavioral activity of extracts dosed intraperitoneally in the range 100-400 mg/kg was examined in adult male Wistar rats, in the elevated plus maze, spontaneous locomotor activity, and grip strength tests, mainly predictive of anxiolytic, sedative and myorelaxant actions, respectively. All investigated Stachys extracts lacked anxiolytic or myorelaxant activities, while SB at 400 mg/kg exerted an anxiogenic-like effect. The study with the selective antagonist beta-CCt showed that the sedative effect of SAD was only partially mediated by GABAA receptors containing the alpha1-subunit. While discernible, the behavioral effects of SA and SP were not distinct. In all extracts, chlorogenic acid and verbascoside were identified. In SA, SB, and SAD the flavonoid fraction was constituted of isoscutellarein and hypolaetine glycosides, while in SP chrysoeriol and apigenin glycosides were present. The results reveal the psychotropic potential of four endemic Stachys taxa, of which SAD appeared most promising as a natural sedative.


Tunneling electron induced bromine hopping on Si(100)-(2 x 1).
Tunneling electrons from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope can be used to induce adatom hopping on Br-terminated Si(100)-(2x1) at low current and without voltage pulses. Hopping does not occur when electrons tunnel from a sample to a tip. The threshold energy is +0.8 V, and tunneling spectroscopy shows antibonding Si-Br states 0.8 eV above the Fermi level. Electron capture in these states is a necessary condition for hopping, but repulsive adsorbate interactions that lower the activation barrier are also required. Such interactions are strong near saturation for Br but are insufficient when the coverage is low or when Br is replaced by Cl.


Guaranteed Cost for an Event-Triggered Consensus Strategy for Interconnected Two Time-Scales Systems With Structured Uncertainty.
This article proposes the design of an event-triggered control strategy for consensus of interconnected two-time scales systems with structured uncertainty. The control design under consideration ensures also that consensus is achieved with an overall guaranteed cost. Since each system involves processes evolving on both fast and slow time scales, two Zeno-free event-triggered mechanisms are designed to independently decide the sampling and transmission instants for the slow and fast states, respectively. As the first step, we design an event-triggering consensus protocol in the ideal/nominal case when the interconnected systems are not affected by uncertainties and the interactions happen over a fixed interaction network. Next, the results are extended in order to take into account structured uncertainties affecting the systems' dynamics. At this step, we go further and we provide sufficient conditions for event-triggering consensus with a guaranteed overall cost. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.


Effects of respiration depth on human body radar cross section Using 2.4GHz continuous wave radar.
In this study, it was tested whether deep and shallow breathing has an effect on the cardiopulmonary radar cross-section (RCS). Continuous wave radar with quadrature architecture at 2.4GHz was used to test 2 human subjects breathing deep and shallow for 30 seconds each while seated 2 meters away from the radar. A retro-reflective marker was placed on the sternum of each subject and measured by infrared motion capture cameras to accurately track displacement of the chest. The quadrature radar outputs were processed to find the radius of the arc on the IQ plot using a circle-fitting algorithm. Results showed that the effective RCS ratio of deep to shallow breathing for subjects 1 and 2 was 6.99 and 2.24 respectively.


Functional Properties of Sonochemically Synthesized Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Cotton Composites.
In this study, zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO) were synthesized, deposited, and successfully used for surface modification of cotton to enhance antimicrobial properties. An in situ ultrasonic acoustic method was applied to anchor nZnO on cotton. The results of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction confirmed the presence of nZnO on cotton. A homogenous distribution of nZnO with an average particle size 27.4 nm was found during the analysis of results. Antimicrobial performance of cotton-nZnO (C-nZnO) composites was evaluated against Gram-negative and Gram-positive microbes. The deposited amount of nZnO on C-nZnO composites was determined by volumetric titration through inductive couple plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. C-nZnO composites showed excellent antimicrobial performance especially against both Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive) and Escherichia coli. The durability and stability of C-nZnO composites were tested against leaching and washing. No significant fluctuation was found on deposited amount of nZnO before and after washing test for optimized sample. The results demonstrate that synthesized C-nZnO composite samples can be used as an alternative for antimicrobial bandages.


Distinct Hypothalamic Paraventricular Nucleus Inputs to the Cingulate Cortex and Paraventricular Thalamic Nucleus Modulate Anxiety and Arousal.
Insomnia and anxiety are two common clinical diseases that threaten people's physical and mental health. Insomnia and anxiety may share some similar underlying neural circuit mechanisms in the brain. In this study, we combine techniques including chemo-fMRI, optogenetics, and chemogenetics to reveal that the glutamatergic neurons of the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN) regulate both anxiety and arousal through two different downstream neural circuits. Optogenetic activation of the PVN-cingulate cortex (Cg) neural circuit triggers anxiety-like behaviors in mice without affecting the wakefulness, while optogenetic activation of the PVN-paraventricular thalamic nucleus (PVT) neural circuit promotes wakefulness in mice without affecting anxiety-like behaviors. Our research reveals that PVN is a key brain area for controlling anxiety and arousal behaviors. We also provide a neurological explanation for anxiety disorder and insomnia which may offer guidance for treatments including drugs or transcranial magnetic stimulation for the patients.


Perspectives of Young Women With Gynecologic Cancers on Fertility and Fertility Preservation: A Systematic Review.
Gynecologic cancers standard treatment often requires the removal of some reproductive organs, making fertility preservation a complex challenge. Despite heightened oncofertility awareness, knowledge about fertility attitudes and decisions of young patients with gynecologic cancer is scarce. The aim of this systematic review was to highlight what is currently known about knowledge, attitudes, and decisions about fertility, fertility preservation, and parenthood among these patients. Peer-reviewed journals published in English were searched in PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE from January 1, 2000 to July 1, 2020. Childbearing, fertility, fertility preservation, pregnancy, and parenthood attitudes/decisions after gynecologic cancer from women's perspective were evaluated. A total of 13 studies comprised the review. Most of the women valued fertility preservation procedures that could be regarded as a means to restore fertility. A unique feature identified was that fertility preservation was seen also as a way to restore gender identity perceived to be lost or threatened during diagnosis and treatment. Fertility counseling was suboptimal, with wide variability among studies reviewed. Comparisons between gynecologic cancers and other cancer types about fertility counseling rates were inconclusive. The potential negative impact of impaired fertility on patients' mental health and quality of life was also documented. Fertility and parenthood were important matters in patients' lives, with the majority of patients expressing positive attitudes toward future childbearing. Results confirm that the inclusion of patients with gynecologic cancer in research studies focusing on this topic still remains low. Additionally, the provision of fertility counseling and referral by health professionals is still suboptimal.


The longitudinal stability of the WRAT-R Reading subtest: is it an appropriate estimate of premorbid intelligence?
Reading tests are assumed to be accurate estimates of premorbid intelligence, based on the belief that reading remains relatively stable following cerebral injury/disease. However, this assumption has been primarily inferred only from studies comparing differences in reading/intelligence measures between neurologically impaired and normal groups. The current study, using within-subject comparisons, compared the longitudinal stability of reading (WRAT-R/3) and intelligence (WAIS-R FIQ) scores for 39 individuals with cognitive dysfunction referred for repeat neuropsychological evaluation. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests indicated that reading scores: (1) did not statistically change for those demonstrating intellectual decline (> 0 point decline in FIQ), or for those who remained relatively stable (FIQ increase between 0 and 6 points) over retest, but (2) did significantly improve for those demonstrating intellectual improvement greater than 6 points. These results suggest that reading scores may be appropriately considered as "hold" tests for individuals who intellectually decline/remain stable over time, but not for those demonstrating significant intellectual improvement. Additionally, significant variability in reading score decline/improvement suggests that caution must be used when estimating premorbid intelligence based on WRAT-R/3 Reading scores.


Recent advances in glycerol polymers: chemistry and biomedical applications.
Glycerol polymers are attracting increased attention due to the diversity of polymer compositions and architectures available. This article provides a brief chronological review on the current status of these polymers along with representative examples of their use for biomedical applications. First, the underlying chemistry of glycerol that provides access to a range of monomers for subsequent polymerizations is described. Then, the various synthetic methodologies to prepare glycerol-based polymers including polyethers, polycarbonates, polyesters, and so forth are reviewed. Next, several biomedical applications where glycerol polymers are being investigated including carriers for drug delivery, sealants or coatings for tissue repair, and agents possessing antibacterial activity are described. Fourth, the growing market opportunity for the use of polymers in medicine is described. Finally, the findings are concluded and summarized, as well as the potential opportunities for continued research efforts are discussed.


Tubular Monolayer Superlattices of Hollow Mn3O4 Nanocrystals and Their Oxygen Reduction Activity.
Self-assembled nanocrystal (NC) superlattices are emerging as an important class of materials with rationally modulated properties. Engineering the nanoscale structure of constituent building blocks as well as the mesoscale morphology of NC superlattices is a crucial step in widening their range of applications. Here, we report a template-assisted epitaxial assembly strategy, enabling growth of freestanding, carbon-coated tubular monolayer superlattices (TMSLs). Specifically, we design and construct TMSLs of hollow Mn3O4 NCs (h-Mn3O4-TMSLs) by exploiting structural evolution of MnO NCs. The tubular superlattices obtained possess a number of unique and advantageous structural features unavailable in conventional NC superlattices, rendering them particularly attractive for energy conversion applications. We demonstrate this by employing h-Mn3O4-TMSLs as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction, the catalytic performance of which is comparable to that of state-of-the-art Pt/C catalysts and superior to that of most manganese oxide-based catalysts reported.


Nitrate Supplementation, Exercise, and Kidney Function: Are There Detrimental Effects?
Recently, dietary supplementation with inorganic nitrate (NO3) has been proposed to endurance athletes to increase their performance. However, it has been suggested that an excess of NO3 might be harmful. The present study analyzed the effect of NO3 supplementation on kidney function. Thirteen young male subjects performed a 20-min cycling exercise at 85% of the maximal oxygen capacity. Seven days before exercise, the subjects ingested either a placebo (Pl) or 450 mg of potassium nitrate (PN) per day. Venous blood samples and urine collections were collected before and immediately after exercise and after 60 min of recovery. Glomerular filtration rates (GFR) and clearances (Cl) were calculated from serum content and urine output for creatinine (Crn), albumin (Alb), and urea. Under resting conditions, GFR and all clearance measures did not differ between Pl and PN. Immediately after exercise, GFR remained stable in both Pl and PN, whereas Cl-urea decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in Pl (-44%) and PN (-49%). Alb urine outputs were enhanced by 18- to 20-fold in Pl and PN, respectively (P < 0.05). After the recovery period, GFR remained enhanced under Pl conditions, whereas Cl-urea returned to initial values in placebo and nitrate supplementation. Alb output and Cl-Alb remained enhanced under PN conditions. These results mainly indicate that dietary nitrate supplementation over a week does not induce any specific kidney function modifications either at rest or during sustained submaximal exercise as compared with Pl.


The natural history of Tourette syndrome: a follow-up study.
Initial reports described Tourette syndrome as a lifelong disorder. Since then, others have noted that some patients experience remissions during late adolescence. To examine this issue, we sent questionnaires to 99 patients with Tourette syndrome who were 15 to 25 years old. The majority of the 58 respondents indicated that they had fewer tics as they reached late adolescence or young adulthood. Although most reported associated behavior or learning problems, the majority felt they were coping well. The long-term outcome in many patients with Tourette syndrome may be more optimistic than previously reported.


Effect of nebulized lidocaine on severe glucocorticoid-dependent asthma.
To determine whether nebulized lidocaine is a useful therapy in patients with severe glucocorticoid-dependent asthma. We prospectively conducted an open study of the effects of administration of nebulized lidocaine four times daily in 20 patients with asthma who had side effects of exogenous hypercortisolism. The 18 women and 2 men, who were 19 to 71 years of age, all had severe asthma that necessitated both topical and systemic administration of glucocorticoids to control symptoms of airflow obstruction. Treatment consisted of nebulized lidocaine, 40 to 160 mg four times daily. Initially, all topical and systemic glucocorticoid regimens were maintained; if peak flow rates remained stable and symptoms of asthma were well controlled, orally administered glucocorticoid regimens were slowly reduced. Thirteen patients were able to discontinue oral use of glucocorticoids entirely, despite prolonged glucocorticoid dependence (mean 6.6 years and median 3 years for the 20 patients); 4 achieved reduction in their daily glucocorticoid requirement while maintaining control of symptoms of asthma (duration of glucocorticoid dependence for responders, mean 6.2 years and median 3.2 years). Three patients had no apparent response, as determined by their continued severe asthma symptoms and inability to reduce oral glucocorticoid requirements. These results suggest that nebulized lidocaine is a useful therapy for chronic asthma, allowing reduction or elimination of oral glucocorticoid therapy.


[Use of irradiation technique for obtaining and modifying biopolymers. Review].
A review of papers concerning application of radiation techniques to the biopolymers production is presented. The nature of electron and gamma irradiation influence on polymers is outlined. Advantages of the method from the point of view of biocompatibility and bio-functionality of biopolymers are underlined. Among them the most important are the following: chemical purity of products, high efficiency of the method, expanded influence on polymers' structure, usefulness in the graft copolymerization, ability of avoiding enhanced temperature during polymerisation and sterility of products. Examples of biopolymers obtained or modified by means of irradiation techniques are gathered.


Protein tyrosine phosphatase encoded in Cotesia plutellae bracovirus suppresses a larva-to-pupa metamorphosis of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella.
Parasitization by an endoparasitoid wasp, Cotesia plutellae, inhibits a larva-to-pupa metamorphosis of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella. This study tested an inhibitory effect of C. plutellae bracovirus (CpBV) on the metamorphosis of P. xylostella. Parasitized P. xylostella exhibited significantly reduced prothoracic gland (PTG) development at the last instar compared to nonparasitized larvae. Expression of the ecdysone receptor (EcR) was markedly suppressed during the last instar larvae parasitized by C. plutellae. By contrast, expression of the insulin receptor (InR) significantly increased in the parasitized larvae. Microinjection of CpBV significantly inhibited the larva-to-pupa metamorphosis of nonparasitized larvae in a dose-dependent manner. Injection of CpBV also inhibited the expression of the EcR and increased the expression of the InR. Individual CpBV segments were transiently expressed in its encoded genes in nonparasitized larvae and screened to determine antimetamorphic viral gene(s). Out of 21 CpBV segments, two viral segments (CpBV-S22 and CpBV-S27) were proved to inhibit larva-to-pupa metamorphosis by transient expression assay. RNA interference of each gene encoded in the viral segments was applied to determine antimetamorphic gene(s). Protein tyrosine phosphatase, early expressed gene, and four hypothetical genes were selected to be associated with the antimetamorphic activity of CpBV. These results suggest that antimetamorphosis of P. xylostella parasitized by C. plutellae is induced by inhibiting PTG development and subsequent ecdysteroid signaling with viral factors of CpBV.


The impact of health information technology on cancer care across the continuum: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Health information technology (HIT) has the potential to play a significant role in the management of cancer. The purpose of this review is to identify and examine empirical studies that investigate the impact of HIT in cancer care on different levels of the care continuum. Electronic searches were performed in four academic databases. The authors used a three-step search process to identify 122 studies that met specific inclusion criteria. Next, a coding sheet was used to extract information from each included article to use in an analysis. Logistic regression was used to determine study-specific characteristics that were associated with positive findings. Overall, 72.4% of published analyses reported a beneficial effect of HIT. Multivariate analysis found that the impact of HIT differs across the cancer continuum with studies targeting diagnosis and treatment being, respectively, 77 (P = .001) and 39 (P = .039) percentage points less likely to report a beneficial effect when compared to those targeting prevention. In addition, studies targeting HIT to patients were 31 percentage points less likely to find a beneficial effect than those targeting providers (P = .030). Lastly, studies assessing behavior change as an outcome were 41 percentage points less likely to find a beneficial effect (P = .006), while studies targeting decision making were 27 percentage points more likely to find a beneficial effect (P = .034). Based on current evidence, HIT interventions seem to be more successful when targeting physicians, care in the prevention phase of the cancer continuum, and/or decision making. An agenda for future research is discussed.


Expression of ADAMTS-2, -3, -13, and -14 in culprit coronary lesions in patients with acute myocardial infarction or stable angina.
ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type 1 motifs) proteases are emerging as key participants in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. We studied the expression of ADAMTS-2, -3, -4 and -14 in the culprit plaques from patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) versus stable angina. Tissue samples were gathered from 52 patients with AMI (n = 35) or stable angina (n = 17) who underwent directional coronary atherectomy. The specimens were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and analyzed immunohistochemically using antibodies specific to ADAMTS-2, -3, -13 and -14, and markers for endothelial cells, macrophages, and smooth muscle cells. Baseline characteristics of the groups were mostly similar. The proportion of smooth muscle α-actin-immunopositive area was smaller in the AMI group than in the stable angina group, but the areas immunopositive for CD31 or CD68 were higher in the AMI group. The relative areas immunopositive for ADAMTS-2, -3, and -13 in AMI were significantly larger than those in stable angina. However, the proportion of areas immunopositive for ADAMTS-14 did not differ between the two groups. Areas that stained for ADAMTS-2, -3, -13, and -14 largely overlapped with those positive for CD31 or CD68. The areas immunopositive for ADAMTS proteases were significantly correlated with CD31- or CD68-immunostained areas. In conclusions, ADAMTS-2, -3, and -13 expression, but not that of ADAMTS-14, are increased in plaques causing AMI compared those associated with stable angina. These results support a role for these enzymes in the pathogenesis of AMI.


Effects of Physical Exercise on Cognition and Telomere Length in Healthy Older Women.
Physical exercise is an effective measure for preventing the onset of cognitive decline and has a direct influence on the aging process. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a 6-month physical exercise program on cognition and telomere length in adults over 65 years of age. Seventy-four healthy women were separated into two groups: 41 were included in the intervention group (IG) (72.70 ± 4.127 years and 8.18 ± 1.551 years of education) and 33 in the control group (CG) (71.21 ± 4.127 years and 8.42 ± 2.562). The participants included within the IG carried out three sessions of physical exercise per week for six months. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Stroop test and the Trail Making Test (TMT). Saliva samples were taken and analyzed and relative telomere length was calculated. Those conducting the analysis were blind to the group to which the participants had been assigned. An improvement was observed in global cognitive function, in both attentional and executive functions, in the group of adults doing physical exercise as compared to the control group. Six months after the physical exercise program had finished, relative telomere length was found to have increased in the participants in the intervention group. Physical exercise programs can lead to an improvement in both cognitive functions and telomere length.


Optical fibre sensors: their role in in vivo dosimetry for prostate cancer radiotherapy.
Review is made of dosimetric studies of current optical fibre technology in radiotherapy for therapeutic applications, focusing particularly on in vivo dosimetry for prostate radiotherapy. We present the various sensor designs along with the main advantages and disadvantages associated with this technology. Optical fibres are ideally placed for applications in radiotherapy dosimetry; due to their small size they are lightweight and immune to electromagnetic interferences. The small dimensions of optical fibres allows it to be easily guided within existing brachytherapy equipment; for example, within the seed implantation needle for direct tumour dose analysis, in the urinary catheter to monitor urethral dose, or within the biopsy needle holder of the transrectal ultrasound probe to monitor rectal wall dose. The article presents the range of optical fibre dosimeter designs along with the main dosimetric properties required for a modern in vivo dosimetry system to be utilised in a clinical environment.


[Disposal of waste glass in sanitary departments: a sample survey in the Lazio region].
As a result of Italian law, DPR 15/7/2003 n. 254, about hospital waste, and given that little has been written about recycling waste glass in hospitals, a survey of 28 health departments in Lazio was performed. The objectives were: to estimate the mean quantity of clear vitreous waste in one year, to estimate how vitreous waste is administered, to estimate the extent of the use of plastic instead of glass, to analyse the costs and benefits of glass use and/or plastic use and to evaluate staff training about hospital waste disposal. The average production of clear vitreous waste was 0.28 kilogram per day per hospital bed occupied. (This would be the theoretical maximum quantity of glass to be recycled). Among the 28 departments studied, 82% separated waste products but only 36% disposed of glass in accordance with the law. The estimated possible savings on glass phleboclysis in 2002 year were 35,000 euro. Staff training could avoid this conspicuous waste of money. Fifteen departments also used plastic phleboclysis; of these, in 2 departments plastic waste is separated in the wards, but unfortunately this material is later disposed of in the bins for general solid urban waste. The other thirteen hospitals dispose of waste plastic as infectious material. Using glass phleboclysis instead of plastic phleboclysis would save about 680,000 euros per year. The disposal of glass waste material in practice was not found to follow the principles taught in the training courses. Theoretic data about glass production, estimated in this survey, refers only to clear glass and it is an underestimate of that of all glass used in departments. The quantity of glass actually recycled has been about 0.14 kilogram per day per hospital bed occupied and thus only 50% of the theoretical quantity (0.28 kilogram per day per hospital bed occupied). This percentage could be improved by effective training. Ideally, the disposal of waste glass would follow the legal requirements and be monitored locally.


Cell-cell matrix interactions in induced lung injury. I. The effects of X-irradiation on basal laminar proteoglycans.
The lungs of male LAF1/J mice were locally irradiated with graded doses of radiation ranging from 5 to 13 Gy. The animals were sacrificed at 1 hr, 1 day, 1 week, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks postirradiation (PI), fixed with Ruthenium Red/Triton X-100 for demonstration of basal laminar anionic sites, and processed for electron microscopy. Sham-irradiated (0 Gy, 0 time) and untreated control groups were also processed. Sections of lungs were examined ultrastructurally and changes in both alveolar and capillary basal laminar anionic sites quantitated. A marked decrease in the number of basal laminar anionic sites was noted 1 hr PI in both alveolar and capillary basal laminae at all dose levels. The decline continued to 1 week for doses of 13 Gy and more gradually to 4 weeks following doses of 5 and 9 Gy, when the number of sites began to increase. By 12 weeks animals receiving 13 Gy were approaching normal levels while those receiving 5 or 9 Gy remained subnormal. The potential effects of the loss of proteoglycans with radiation on lung basal laminar permeability and cell-extracellular matrix interactions are discussed.


On the Lathrobium fauna of the Luoxiao Mountains, Central China.
Thirteen species of Lathrobium Gravenhorst, 1802 are recorded from the Luoxiao Mountains, Central China, all of them micropterous and locally endemic. Eight species are described and illustrated: L. bamianense Peng & Li sp. n., L. fumingi Peng & Li sp. n., L. jinyuae Peng & Li sp. n., L. jiulingense Peng & Li sp. n., L. shuguangi Peng & Li sp. n., L. taiye Peng & Li sp. n., L. yangshimuense Peng & Li sp. n., and L. yipingae Peng & Li sp. n. Five probably undescribed species remain unnamed. Including the new taxa, 219 Lathrobium species are currently known from mainland China.


Re-entrant behavior in dynamics of binary mixtures of soft hybrid nanocolloids and homopolymers.
We present results of measurements of temperature and wavevector dependent dynamics in binary mixtures of soft polymer grafted nanoparticles and linear homopolymers. We find evidence of melting of the dynamically arrested state of the soft nanocolloids with addition of linear polymers followed by a re-entrant slowing down of the dynamics with further increase in polymer density, depending on the size ratio, δ, of the polymers and the nanocolloids. For higher δ the re-entrant behavior is not observed, even for the highest added polymer density, explored here. Possible explanation of the observed dynamics in terms of the presence of a double-glass phase is provided.


Trandolaprilat, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, is not excreted in bile via an ATP-dependent active transporter (cMOAT).
Trandolapril is the prodrug of an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. It has been proposed that its active metabolite, trandolaprilat, is mainly excreted in bile, but this has not been clearly demonstrated. Recently it has been reported that temocaprilat, an active metabolite of the ACE inhibitor temocapril, is effectively excreted in bile via an ATP-dependent active transporter (canalicular multispecific organic anion transporter: cMOAT). To investigate whether trandolaprilat has the pharmacological ability to affect the cMOAT system in a manner similar to temocaprilat. The lipophilicity of trandolaprilat and temocaprilat was measured to determine the n-octanol-water partition coefficients. The dose-dependent inhibition of the up-take of [3H]-estradiol-17beta-D-glucuronide and [3H]-2,4-dinitrophenyl-S-glutathione, which are good substrates for cMOAT, in canalicular membrane vesicles (CMVs) prepared from Sprague-Dawley rats was determined in the presence of trandolaprilat and temocaprilat. The partition coefficient of trandolaprilat (log Po/w - 1.1) was about 30 times higher than that of temocaprilat (log Po/w - 2.5). The uptake of [3H]-estradiol-17beta-D-glucuronide and [3H]-2,4-dinitrophenyl-S-glutathione was dose-dependently inhibited by the presence of temocaprilat, but trandolaprilat had no effect on the transport of [3H]-estradiol-17beta-D-glucuronide or [3H]-2,4-dinitrophenyl-S-glutathione into CMVs even at concentrations as high as 200 microM. It could be concluded that trandolaprilat has a higher lipophilicity than temocaprilat. But the hepatobiliary excretion system via cMOAT may not contribute to the excretion of trandolaprilat in bile.


Iron(III) complexes of fluorescent hydroxamate ligands: preparation, properties, and cellular processing.
Iron(III) complexes containing hydroxamic acid fluorophores were investigated as models of hypoxia selective prodrugs in vitro. Two complexes were synthesised, [Fe(c343haH)(3)] and [Fe(salen)(c343haH)]. The fluorescence of the hydroxamate coumarin fluorophore was almost completely quenched on coordination to the iron(III) centre in [Fe(c343haH)(3)]. However, quenching was minimal for [Fe(c343haH)(salen)] in aqueous media and we propose that the fluorescence results from structural rearrangements that occur because of the inherent strain in the iron-salen structure. Fluorescence was also measured in the presence of the cellular reductants ascorbic acid and cysteine. Fluorescence intensity increased over time, with the most rapid return of fluorescence occurring over a two hr period. The rapid fluorescence return indicates that the complexes undergo ligand release, either via reduction followed by aquation, or via direct ligand exchange with the reductants. Electrochemical studies demonstrated that both complexes have very negative reduction potentials. Furthermore, [Fe(c343haH)(salen)] was shown to exhibit quasi-reversibility of reduction. The distribution of the free hydroxamate ligand and the complexes were monitored in A2780 cells. The free ligand displayed non-specific distribution, which differed from the nucleolar distribution of [Fe(c343haH)(3)] and the lysosomal accumulation of [Fe(c343haH)(salen)] over time. Thus the results of the present study show that iron(III) complexes present a viable model for monitoring hydroxamate fluorophore displacement in vitro to determine the fate of prodrugs.


Variability of Postural Stability and Plantar Pressure Parameters in Healthy Subjects Evaluated by a Novel Pressure Plate.
Background: Postural stability and plantar pressure parameters can be assessed by baropodometry; nevertheless, they are often affected by low repeatability. The aim of the study was to test the accuracy and repeatability of a novel resistive sensor pressure plate and to establish the most reliable baropodometric parameters. Methods: Accuracy and repeatability of the FM12050 BTS-Bioengineering plate measurements were assessed by using different weights in static conditions across three sessions. Subsequently, 20 healthy subjects were assessed by 30-s stabilometric analysis in bipedal standing with open eyes across four trials in two sessions, morning and afternoon. Results: Pressure plate repeatability in measuring the static weights was very high, and plate measurements were correlated to the scale measurements (Pearson's coefficient = 0.99). Percentage of load distribution between left and right foot and in rearfoot and forefoot regions showed the largest repeatability (coefficient of variation < 5%) across trials. Eventually, median and percentiles (25−75%) were reported for each parameter. Conclusions: This study helped to assess the accuracy and repeatability of a novel pressure plate in static conditions and to define the most reliable parameters for the assessment of postural stability and foot morphology. The present healthy-subject stabilometric dataset may be used as reference data in the evaluation of pathological populations.


Bromine-76-metabromobenzylguanidine: a PET radiotracer for mapping sympathetic nerves of the heart.
Iodine-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is used to qualitatively assess heart innervation with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). This approach is clinically useful in the prognostic evaluation of congestive heart failure. To improve quantification of uptake of the tracer using positron emission tomography (PET), we studied the characteristics of the bromoanalog of MIBG. Bromine-76-metabromobenzylguanidine (76Br-MBBG) was prepared from a heteroisotopic exchange between radioactive bromine atoms (noncarrier-added (76Br) BrNH4) and the cold iodine atoms of the precursor metaiodobenzylguanidine. Biodistribution was studied in rats and PET cardiac imaging performed in dogs. Myocardial uptake was high and prolonged in both species (mean half-life in dogs: 580 min). In rats, myocardial uptake was inhibited by desipramine by 64%, whereas after pretreatment with 6-hydroxydopamine uptake was reduced by 84%. In dogs pretreated with 6-hydroxydopamine or with desipramine, a steep washout of the tracer occurred (mean half-life: 136 min and 118 min, respectively). The non-specific uptake plus the passive neuronal diffusion of the tracer could be estimated at about 25%-30% of the total fixation. In dogs, analysis of unchanged 76Br-MBBG in plasma showed that radiotracer metabolism was slow: 60 min after injection, 80% of the radioactivity was related to unchanged 76Br-MBBG. These preliminary findings suggest that 76Br-MBBG could be used to quantitatively assess adrenergic innervation in heart disease using PET. When combined with use of 11C-CGP 12177, cardiac adrenergic neurotransmission can be assessed.


N-acyldithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrroles: second generation dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole building blocks with stabilized energy levels.
A new class of dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrroles (DTPs) incorporating N-acyl groups have been prepared from 3-bromothiophene via copper-catalyzed amidation. The utilization of various electron-withdrawing acyl groups has allowed stabilization of the HOMO and LUMO energy levels of these popular building blocks for conjugated materials. The synthesis and characterization of this new class of compounds is described, including electrochemical and photophysical data for all compounds and X-ray structural data for the octanoyl, benzoyl, and cyclohexanoyl functionalized compounds. Initial polymers generated via electropolymerization are also reported.


Rostro-dorsal and rostro-lateral skull morphologic variability in three age-groups of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) (Linnaeus, 1758): implications of certain orbital parameters - angular geometric approach.
This study evaluated 30 skulls of the grey mongoose divided into three age-groups (6 pups, 10 juveniles and 14 adults) for skull shape variability determination. Specific geometric shapes were drawn from defined points. Angular geometric measurements of shapes derived from rostro-dorsal and rostro-lateral parts of the skull included; orbital angles (with and without the mandible), comprising of viscero-cranium, skull and orbital index that was calculated to evaluate the correlations, if any, with angles measured. It was observed that orbital height and width became higher with age; there was stronger correlation in this regard between pups and juveniles compared with juveniles and adults. There is a reduction (narrowing) in BrEcEc, BrEcN, EcPEc, EcEnN and NwNNw angles with concomitant enlargement of BrEcP, BrEcN, EcNEc, EnNEn, EcNNw and EnNP with age. The decline in the skull index shows a decrease in rate of skull width growth relative to rostro-facial length and demonstrates non-proportionality to zygoma bowing. Significantly varied orbital parameters include the inter-canthii distance and implications of certain significant variables observed in some geometric orbital measurements of the tropical mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon). The survey hypothesizes the observations follow typical carnivoran phylogenic affinity, differentiates this species from similar herpestid versions and is an estimation of functional morphology with respect to bite size. It is further suggested to contribute to visual acuity in timing of bite delivery as well an adaptation in prey summarisation. This study will serve as baseline information in herpestid cranial investigations. Such facial features are useful in population studies, species identification, eco-migrant species surveillance and species ontogenic evolution.


[Feasibility of analysis of macroevolutionary rearrangements of mammalian chromosomes].
In the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, detailed studies on chromosome sets of humans and domestic animals were initiated and supported by D.I. Belyaev and started by S.I. Radzhabli. They believed that analysis of differentially stained chromosomes and mapping of the genomes of main commercial species provide for a better understanding of the processes that occurred during their evolution and domestication. Several new approaches to studying macroevolutionary karyotypic rearrangements associated with divergence of remote taxa, such as primates and paridigitate ungulates, are discussed.


Pulmonary nocardiosis--a rare case of pulmonary nocardiosis in an immunocompetent patient.
Nocardiosis is localised or disseminated infection caused by soil dwelling aerobic actinomycetes, which habitually enter through the respiratory tract. There has been an increase in the incidence of nocardia species infections probably due to higher degree of clinical suspicion, aggressive diagnostic examinations, increased use of immunosuppressive treatments (chemotherapy agents and immunosuppressive agents) and the appearance of AIDS. Here we are presenting an atypical case of Nocardia asteroides in a 45-years-old immunocompetent female patient presenting with history of cough with scanty expectoration, haemoptysis and fever for 4 months. Clinical and radiological diagnostic consideration were tuberculosis and malignancy. Diagnosis of nocardiosis was confirmed microbiologically and the patient responded to cotrimoxazole.


Purine nucleoside phosphorylase inhibitor BCX-1777 (Immucillin-H)--a novel potent and orally active immunosuppressive agent.
Patients with purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) deficiency present a selective T-cell immunodeficiency. Inhibitors of PNP are, therefore, of interest as potential T-cell selective immunosuppressive agents. BCX-1777 is a potent inhibitor of PNP from various species including human, mouse, rat, monkey and dog, with IC50 values ranging from 0.48 to 1.57 nM. BCX-1777, in the presence of 2'-deoxyguanosine (dGuo, 3-10 microM), inhibits human lymphocyte proliferation activated by various agents such as interleukin-2 (IL-2), mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA) (IC50 values < 0.1-0.38 microM). BCX-1777 is a 10-100-fold more potent inhibitor of human lymphocyte proliferation than other known PNP inhibitors like PD141955 and BCX-34. Nucleotide analysis of human lymphocytes indicate that inhibition of proliferation by BCX-1777 correlates with dGTP levels in the cells. BCX-1777 has excellent oral bioavailability (63%) in mice. At a single dose of 10 mg/kg in mice, BCX-1777 elevates dGuo to approximately 5 microM. BCX-1777 was not effective in mouse T-cell models such as delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) and splenomegaly because mouse T-cells do not accumulate dGTP as do human T-cells. However, in the human peripheral blood lymphocyte severe combined immunodeficiency (hu-PBL-SCID) mouse model, BCX-1777 was effective in prolonging the life span 2-fold or more. This is the first known example of a PNP inhibitor that elevates dGuo in mice similar to the levels observed in PNP-deficient patients. Furthermore, these dGuo levels are also required for in vitro T-cell inhibition by BCX-1777. Thus, BCX-1777 represents a novel class of selective immunosuppressive agents that could have therapeutic utility in various T-cell disorders.