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pubmed_341_15904
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BACKGROUND
Approximately 30-50% patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STMEI) were found to have non-infarct-related coronary artery (IRA) disease, which was significantly associated with worse prognosis. However, challenges still remain for these patients: which non-infarct-related lesion should be treated and when should the procedure be performed? The present study aims to investigate Fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided complete revascularization (CR) in comparison to culprit-only revascularization (COR) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and multi-vessel disease (MVD).
METHODS
Three appropriate randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were selected from the PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library /CENTRAL databases. 1631 patients (688 patients underwent FFR-guided CR and 943 patients underwent COR) following-up 12-44 months was evaluated.
RESULTS
FFR-guided CR significantly reduced major adverse cardiac event (MACE) (OR 0.47, 95% CI: 0.35-0.62, P < 0.00001) and ischemia-driven repeat revascularization (OR 0.36, 0.26-0.51, P < 0.00001), as compared to COR. However, there is no difference in all-cause mortality (OR 1.24, 0.65-2.35, P = 0.51).
CONCLUSIONS
In patients with STEMI and MVD, FFR-guided CR is better than COR in terms of MACE and ischemia-driven repeat revascularization, while there are almost similar in all-cause mortality.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
All analyses were based on previous published studies, thus no ethical approval and patient consent are required COMPARE-ACUTE trial number NCT01399736 ; DANAMI-3-PRIMULTI trial number NCT01960933 .
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10.1186/s12872-019-1022-6
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pubmed_993_472
|
Cells of the Chinese hamster line B 14 FAF 28 were treated with BUdR and irradiated with X-rays under the presence of cysteamine. The dose-dependent inactivation rates could be determined rather precisely by marking single cells. Daily cell counts in the growing colonies made it possible to establish individual colony growth curves. The results of both analyses show for untreated and treated cells a nearly equal factor with respect to the protecting effect of cysteamine. Also in the "macrocolonies" this effect is clearly measurable even five days after irradiation indicating a still existing very different vitality of the cells at that time. The results are discussed with concern to following irradiations.
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pubmed_993_472
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pubmed_992_5775
|
Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma (ATC) is one of the most lethal tumours in humans, extremely rare in occurrence and very aggressive in nature. We hereby present a rare case of ATC with airway compromise. A 66-year-old male, presented complaining of a non-tender anterior neck mass rapidly increasing in size associated with dry cough, hoarseness and voice changes. Imaging studies revealed a large heterogeneous centrally necrotic lobulated left thyroid mass with metastatic lymph nodes and rightward tracheal deviation. Core biopsy and immunohistochemistry stains revealed a profile consistent with ATC. Patient's airway was compromised. Options for treatment and prognosis were discussed. Patient was discharged home with home hospice. A high index of suspicion for ATC is necessary in patients presenting with a rapidly enlarging neck mass. A prompt cytologic evaluation with metastatic work up is important to establish diagnosis. Due to its poor prognosis, an honest discussion regarding end-of-life issues must be initiated at diagnosis. Novel therapies toward genetic and epigenetic pathways have been developed, which is the basis of current clinical trials that are intended to improve clinical outcomes in the coming years.
|
10.7860/JCDR/2017/25685.9874
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pubmed_364_16945
|
Primary glomerulonephritis can recur after kidney transplantation and may jeopardize the survival of the renal allograft. The risks of living-related kidney transplantation remain controversial in this group of patients. Living related transplantation offers potentially better HLA matching, therefore improve the long-term graft survival. However, the concern for increased rates of recurrence of the primary glomerulonephritis in the transplanted kidney from living related donors complicates the selection of donors. With the recent dramatic rise in the use of paired kidney exchange, there is now often the option of having a living related donor donate through a paired exchange. This raises the question of whether patients with primary glomerulonephritis should receive living donor kidneys through paired kidney exchange programs to obtain the benefits of a living donor kidney transplant while also reducing the risk of recurrent glomerulonephritis. Our review of the literature suggests that although the recurrence of primary glomerulonephritis occurs more often when donation occurs from a living related donor as compared to an unrelated donor, the graft survival advantage of living related donation is generally maintained despite the recurrence. We suggest that despite the increased risk of recurrence, living related donation should not be avoided in patients with primary glomerulonephritis as the cause of their end-stage renal disease.
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10.1016/j.trre.2020.100584
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pubmed_108_4979
|
Previous studies have suggested that even in euthyroid subjects, thyroid function may affect the risk factors of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Thus, we investigated the association between thyroid parameters and DN in euthyroid subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This was a cross-sectional study of 1,071 euthyroid subjects with T2DM (mean age of 61.90 ± 12.74 years; 622 men). Clinical factors, including levels of free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroid autoantibodies, albumin excretion rate were measured. DN was present in 400 (37.35%) individuals. Patients with DN exhibited higher serum TSH and lower serum FT3 and FT4 levels than those without DN (P<0.05). After adjusting traditional risk factors of DN, the levels of both FT3 (per-SD increase, odds ratio [OR] 0.606 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.481-0.762], P<0.001) and FT4 (per-SD increase, OR 0.944 [0.894-0.998], P = 0.040) were inversely correlated with DN. Meanwhile, we found that serum TSH levels were positively correlated with DN (per-SD increase, OR1.179 [1.033-1.346], P = 0.015). Low-to-normal thyroid hormones (THs) were also associated with the presence of macroalbuminuria. In conclusion, the relatively low levels of THs were significantly associated with DN in euthyroid subjects with T2DM.
|
10.18632/oncotarget.26265
|
pubmed_553_2641
|
To study physiological effects of weightlessness, 12 male volunteers, aged 25-33, were exposed to 7-day water immersion. The test subjects were divided into two groups of 6 in each: the first group subjects were given a new Soviet stimulant sydnocarb (3-(beta-phenylisopropyl) -N-phenyl carbamoyl sydnonimine) and the second group subjects were given a placebo, using the double-blind method. To evaluate the cardiorespiratory function, the test subjects exercised on a bicycle ergometer before and after water immersion. During exercises ECG, heart rate, minute respiration volume, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, cardiac output, oxygen pulse were recorded. The test subjects on the placebo showed a significant decrease of oxygen consumption at at maximum workload. Those who were given sydnocarb maintained normal oxygen consumption during bicycle ergometry. The drug increased the workload per kg body weight, maintained physical work capacity, and improved the cardiovascular function after immersion.
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pubmed_553_2641
|
pubmed_297_14974
|
Semisupervised learning aims to leverage both labeled and unlabeled data to improve performance, where most of them are graph-based methods. However, the graph-based semisupervised methods are not capable for large-scale data since the computational consumption on the construction of graph Laplacian matrix is huge. On the other hand, the substantial unlabeled data in training stage of semisupervised learning could cause large uncertainties and potential threats. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance the robustness of semisupervised classification. In this paper, a novel large-scale robust semisupervised learning method is proposed in the framework of capped l2,p -norm. This strategy is superior not only in computational cost because it makes the graph Laplacian matrix unnecessary, but also in robustness to outliers since the capped l2,p -norm used for loss measurement. An efficient optimization algorithm is exploited to solve the nonconvex and nonsmooth challenging problem. The complexity of the proposed algorithm is analyzed and discussed in theory detailedly. Finally, extensive experiments are conducted over six benchmark data sets to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.
|
10.1109/TCYB.2018.2789420
|
pubmed_929_2980
|
In this article, we study the efficacy of haptic pedal feel compensation on driving safety and performance during regenerative braking. In particular, we evaluate the effectiveness of the preservation of the natural brake pedal feel under two-pedal cooperative braking and one-pedal driving scenarios, through human subject experiments in a simulated vehicle pursuit task. The experimental results indicate that pedal feel compensation can significantly decrease the hard braking instances, improving safety for both two-pedal cooperative braking and one-pedal driving conditions. Volunteers strongly prefer compensation, while they equally prefer and can effectively utilize two-pedal and one-pedal driving conditions. The beneficial effects of haptic pedal feel compensation on safety is evaluated to be larger for the two-pedal cooperative braking condition, as lack of compensation results in stiffening/softening pedal feel characteristics in this case.
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10.1109/TOH.2020.2967394
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pubmed_239_6725
|
This document has been archived because it contains outdated information. It should not be consulted for clinical use, but for historical research only. Please visit the journal website for the most recent guidelines.
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10.1016/S1701-2163(15)30706-4
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pubmed_890_8619
|
A 17-year-old adolescent boy presented with atypical major depressive episode (MDE) without specific focal neurological signs for 6 months. He had a diagnosis of intra-cranial germinoma, and the atypical MDE symptoms subsided after the operation. However, he had a relapse of atypical MDE 7 months after the first surgery. His mood and binge eating symptoms subsided, but intractable body weight gain only partially improved after treatment. When encountering manifestations of depression with atypical features, especially with binge eating symptoms in male children and adolescents, with early onset age, no family history, and prolonged depressive episodes, clinicians should consider not only mood disorders including bipolar spectrum disorders but also organic brain lesions such as intracranial germinoma.
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10.2147/NDT.S118902
|
pubmed_165_13904
|
The benefits of HLA matching have been clearly demonstrated in renal and cardiac transplantation. Recent studies suggest that HLA matching may be associated with improved survival rates for transplantation as well. However, the effect of HLA matching for lung transplantation has not been clearly demonstrated. Despite the possible benefits of HLA compatibility, matching for lung transplantation is based solely on ABO compatibility and lung size. Several factors limit the feasibility of utilizing HLA matching for lung transplantation. Among these factors is the time required to perform HLA typing, to identify appropriate recipients, and to allocate lungs; an additional constraint is the urgent need for transplantation in patients experiencing rapid clinical decline. The obstacles to using prospective HLA matching for lung allocation are significant, and matching lung donors and recipients according to histocompatibility status would require considerable effort. However, with supra-regional cooperation among transplant centers and procurement agencies, it appears feasible to consider HLA matching for lung transplantation. Given the potential for improved survival, a project should be undertaken to determine the impact of HLA matching on the outcome of lung transplantation.
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pubmed_165_13904
|
pubmed_190_12406
|
The human body is a complex network of molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, and organs: an uncountable number of interactions and transformations interconnect all the system's components. In addition to these biochemical components, biophysical components, such as pressure, flow, and morphology, and the location of all of these interactions play an important role in the human body. Technical difficulties have frequently limited researchers from observing cellular biology as it occurs within the human body, but some state-of-the-art analytical techniques have revealed distinct cellular behaviors that occur only in the context of the interactions. These types of findings have inspired bioanalytical chemists to provide new tools to better understand these cellular behaviors and interactions. What blocks us from understanding critical biological interactions in the human body? Conventional approaches are often too naïve to provide realistic data and in vivo whole animal studies give complex results that may or may not be relevant for humans. Microfluidics offers an opportunity to bridge these two extremes: while these studies will not model the complexity of the in vivo human system, they can control the complexity so researchers can examine critical factors of interest carefully and quantitatively. In addition, the use of human cells, such as cells isolated from donated blood, captures human-relevant data and limits the use of animals in research. In addition, researchers can adapt these systems easily and cost-effectively to a variety of high-end signal transduction mechanisms, facilitating high-throughput studies that are also spatially, temporally, or chemically resolved. These strengths should allow microfluidic platforms to reveal critical parameters in the human body and provide insights that will help with the translation of pharmacological advances to clinical trials. In this Account, we describe selected microfluidic innovations within the last 5 years that focus on modeling both biophysical and biochemical interactions in cellular communication, such as flow and cell-cell networks. We also describe more advanced systems that mimic higher level biological networks, such as organ on-a-chip and animal on-a-chip models. Since the first papers in the early 1990s, interest in the bioanalytical use of microfluidics has grown significantly. Advances in micro-/nanofabrication technology have allowed researchers to produce miniaturized, biocompatible assay platforms suitable for microfluidic studies in biochemistry and chemical biology. Well-designed microfluidic platforms can achieve quick, in vitro analyses on pico- and femtoliter volume samples that are temporally, spatially, and chemically resolved. In addition, controlled cell culture techniques using a microfluidic platform have produced biomimetic systems that allow researchers to replicate and monitor physiological interactions. Pioneering work has successfully created cell-fluid, cell-cell, cell-tissue, tissue-tissue, even organ-like level interfaces. Researchers have monitored cellular behaviors in these biomimetic microfluidic environments, producing validated model systems to understand human pathophysiology and to support the development of new therapeutics.
|
10.1021/ar4002608
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pubmed_5_10404
|
To investigate the possible roles of the Ras/Rho family members in the inside-out signals to activate integrins, we examined the ability of Ras/Rho small GTPases to stimulate avidity of alpha(5)beta(1) (VLA-5) to fibronectin in bone marrow-derived mast cells. We found that both Ha-Ras(Val-12) and R-Ras(Val-38) had strong stimulatory effects on adhesion and ligand binding activity of VLA-5 to fibronectin. However, only Ha-Ras(Val-12)-, but not R-Ras(Val-38)-induced adhesion was inhibited by wortmannin, which suggests that Ha-Ras(Val-12) is dependent on phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase on adhesion whereas R-Ras(Val-38) has another PI 3-kinase independent pathway to induce adhesion. The effector loop mutant Ha-Ras(Val-12)E37G, but not Y40C retained the ability to stimulate adhesion of mast cells to fibronectin. Consistently, PI 3-kinase p110delta, predominantly expressed in mast cells, interacted with Ha-Ras(Val-12) E37G, but not Y40C, which was also correlated with the levels of Akt phosphorylation in mast cells. Furthermore, marked adhesion was induced by a membrane-targeted version of p110delta. These results indicate that Ha-Ras(Val-12) activated VLA-5 through PI 3-kinase p110delta. The mutational effects of the R-Ras effector loop region on adhesion were not correlated with PI 3-kinase activities, consistent with our contention that R-Ras has a distinct pathway to modulate avidity of VLA-5.
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10.1074/jbc.M000633200
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pubmed_926_950
|
Colistin is a polymyxin antibiotic which is considered as one of the last line agents against infections due to multidrug resistant or carbapenem resistant gram-negative pathogens. Colistin resistance is associated with chromosomal alterations which can usually cause mutations in genes coding specific two component regulator systems. The first plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene, mcr-1 was described in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates in December 2015 and followed by another plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-2 in 2016. The rapid and interspecies dissemination of plasmid-mediated resistance mechanisms through horizontal gene transfer, have made these genes considerably threatening. After the first reports, although mcr-1/mcr-2 producing Enterobacteriaceae isolates have been reported from many countries, there have been no reports from Turkey. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the presence of mcr-1/mcr-2 in clinical Enterobacteriaceae isolates from different parts of our country. A total of 329 Enterobacteriaceae isolates from 22 laboratories were collected which were isolated between March, 2015 and February, 2016. mcr-1/mcr-2 were investigated by polymerase chain reaction during February-March, 2016. Two hundred and seventeen of Klebsiella pneumoniae (66%), 75 of Salmonella spp. (22.8%), 31 of Esherichia coli (9.4%), 3 of Enterobacter cloacae (0.9%), 2 of Klebsiella oxytoca (0.6%) and 1 of Enterobacter aerogenes (0.3%) isolates were included to the study. Agarose gel electrophoresis results of PCR studies have shown expected band sizes for positive control isolates as 309 bp for mcr-1 and 567 bp for mcr-2. However, the presence of mcr-1/mcr-2 genes was not detected among the tested study isolates of Enterobacteriaceae. Although mcr-1/mcr-2 were not detected in our study isolates, it is highly important to understand the mechanism of resistance dissemination and determine the resistant isolates by considering that colistin is a last-line antibiotic against infections of multidrug or carbapenem resistant gram-negative bacteria. Thus, it is suggested that these mechanisms should be followed-up in both clinical and non-clinical (e.g. isolates from food animals, raw meats and environment) isolates of special populations.
|
10.5578/mb.57515
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pubmed_93_23543
|
Levodopa-induced dyskinesia is a major complication of long-term dopamine replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease that becomes increasingly problematic in advanced Parkinson's disease. Although the cause of levodopa-induced dyskinesias is still unclear, recent work in animal models of the corticostriatal system has suggested that levodopa-induced dyskinesias might result from abnormal control of synaptic plasticity. In the present study, we aimed to explore control of plasticity in patients with Parkinson's disease with and without levodopa-induced dyskinesias by taking advantage of a newly developed protocol that tests depotentiation of pre-existing long-term potentiation-like synaptic facilitation. Long-term potentiation-like plasticity and its reversibility were studied in the motor cortex of 10 healthy subjects, 10 patients with Parkinson's disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesias, who took half of the regular dose of levodopa and 10 patients with Parkinson's disease without levodopa-induced dyskinesias, who took either half or the full dose of levodopa. Patients with Parkinson's disease without levodopa-induced dyskinesias had normal long-term potentiation- and depotentiation-like effects when they took their full dose of levodopa, but there was no long-term potentiation-like effect when they were on half dose of levodopa. In contrast, patients with levodopa-induced dyskinesias could be successfully potentiated when they were on half their usual dose of levodopa; however, they were unresponsive to the depotentiation protocol. The results suggest that depotentiation is abnormal in the motor cortex of patients with Parkinson's disease with levodopa-induced dyskinesias and that their long-term potentiation-like plasticity is more readily affected by administration of levodopa than their clinical symptoms.
|
10.1093/brain/awr158
|
pubmed_810_11895
|
Allele-specific amplification, combined with TaqMan probe real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time AS-PCR), has been widely used for detecting genetic variants, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and genetic mutations. In addition, several probe-blocking methods have been introduced in real-time AS-PCR to block amplification of wild-type templates and to increase detection sensitivity and specificity. However, most of these methods provide a limited sensitivity of no better than 1% and are complex in design of blockers, and thus cannot be readily adapted for different mutation assays. We have developed a modified non-extendable primer blocker (NEPB) for real-time AS-PCR (AS-NEPB-PCR). The NEPB method provides an easy design of allele-specific primer and corresponding primer blocker that can be used in any single nucleotide polymorphism or mutation detection, specifically in the detection of low-frequency mutations. The method is straight-forward in assay optimization and can achieve 0.1% sensitivity with 100% specificity (95% confidence interval, 92-100%) in detecting K-Ras, B-Raf, and EGFR mutations in cancer cells.
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pubmed_810_11895
|
pubmed_639_14531
|
Populations of migratory waterbirds are facing dramatic declines worldwide due to illegal hunting, habitat loss and climate change. Conservation strategies to reverse these trends are imperative, especially in tropical developing countries, which almost invariably allocate insufficient levels of investment for environmental protection. Here, we compared the effectiveness of sustainable-use Protected Areas (PAs) and Community-based Conservation (CBC) arrangements for the conservation of migratory waterbirds that breed on seasonal riverine sandy beaches in Brazilian Amazonia. We modeled local population responses of four migratory waterbird species on 155 beaches along a ~1,600 km section of a major tributary of the Amazon, as a function of community enforcement, official protection status, human pressure and landscape features. We show that 21 community-protected beaches within the study area host more than 80% of all sampled birds. Black Skimmers showed the most dramatic response, with breeding numbers 135-fold larger in CBC arrangements compared to beaches with no official protection status. The same pattern was observed for nesting Large-Billed and Yellow-Billed Terns. For the Near Threatened Orinoco Goose, PA status was the strongest predictor of local population size. These dramatic results demonstrate the value of protected refugia, achieved through the concerted action of participating local communities, to support breeding populations of key waterbird species. This highly-effective and low-cost conservation model can potentially be replicated in other regions of the developing world experiencing increasingly intensive exploitation of riverine natural resources.
|
10.1371/journal.pone.0250022
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pubmed_273_14786
|
In the scope of the EU Leonardo project we developed an online master degree program in occupational health. During the project we performed two studies to research how the on line education is perceived by prospective students and lecturers. They showed that e-learning is an appropriate method for occupational health education but to be successful we also have to take into the consideration that health education requires some specific requirements which must be fulfilled.
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pubmed_273_14786
|
pubmed_255_7580
|
The first step of a strategic planning process--identifying and analyzing threats and opportunities--requires subjective judgments. By using an analytical tool known as a fault tree, healthcare administrators can reduce the unreliability of subjective decision making by creating a logical structure for problem solving and decision making. A case study of 11 healthcare administrators showed that an analysis technique called prospective hindsight can add to a fault tree's ability to improve a strategic planning process.
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pubmed_255_7580
|
pubmed_497_11904
|
Activation of the coagulation cascade, mediated by various monocyte/macrophage procoagulants, is an important component in the pathology of inflammatory disease. The type of procoagulant expressed may vary between different monocyte/macrophage subtypes and may differ depending on how the cells are treated. In the present study we show that both murine peritoneal macrophages and human adherent synovial cells from rheumatoid arthritis lesions express prothrombinase activity that was inhibited by anti-Factor X antibodies. Northern blot analysis showed that Factor X was transcribed by the murine peritoneal cells and Western blot analysis showed the presence of Factor X antigen. Further experiments showed that the prothrombinase activity was secreted by the cells into the medium in a detergent-sensitive form, suggesting that the prothrombinase is released on small lipid-containing vesicles.
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pubmed_497_11904
|
pubmed_212_7016
|
The virulence of influenza A viruses was determined using the intracerebral pathogenicity index test for chickens. The viruses were divided into high virulent, low virulent and avirulent strains. A low virulent strain was recovered from the jejunum and faeces of infected chickens.
|
10.1007/BF01320623
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pubmed_352_2254
|
Histone H1 phosphorylation was examined during embryonic development of Drosophila hydei. A changing pattern of H1 phosphorylation upon separation on an acid-urea polyacrylamide gel was observed in the course of Drosophila embryogenesis. It is considered to be related to the decrease of the mitotic activity of the cells as development proceeds.
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10.1007/BF00419597
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pubmed_722_10791
|
PURPOSE
To analyse the management of a series of shoulder dystocias with respect to the Anglo-Saxon recommendations. The study also analysed the maternal and neonatal morbidity associated with this incident.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
Retrospective study at hôpital Foch of Suresnes between January 2004 and December 2008, including the difficulties and shoulder dystocias.
RESULTS
The study is noted 192 shoulder dystocias, an incidence of about 2%. Mc Roberts's maneuver and suprapublic pressure were employed in first intention in 85.9% of the dystocias and were effective alone in 58.6% of the cases. Counter-rotation and abdominal expression were respectively used in 19.6 and 14.1% of the cases, even through they are not recommended in this situation. Six third degree perinatal lesions (3.1%) and nine lesions of the brachial plexus (4.7%) were observed although a causal link was not revealed between the type of maneuver used and the lesions observed.
CONCLUSION
Mc Roberts maneuver and supraprubic pressure, which had to be execute in first intention in case of shoulder dystocia, seem to be acquire by obstetricians and midwifes. However, other maneuvers not recommended are used and should be forbidden. That's why, our learned societies should publish Recommendations for Clinical Practice for the care of shoulder dystocia, in the purpose of the harmonisation of our practices, will help improve the care of the shoulder dystocia. The perpetual training of the manoeuvres seems also to be essential.
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10.1016/j.jgyn.2010.09.008
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pubmed_635_24276
|
BACKGROUND
Positive sentinel lymph node (SLN) findings in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) range from 1 to 22 % but have unknown biologic significance. This study sought to identify predictors of positive SLNs and to assess their clinical significance for patients with an initial diagnosis of DCIS.
METHODS
The study identified 1234 patients with an initial diagnosis of DCIS who underwent SLN dissection (SLND) at our institution from 1997 through 2011. Positive SLN findings were categorized as isolated tumor cells (ITCs) (≤0.2 mm), micrometastases (>0.2-2 mm), or macrometastases (>2 mm). Predictors of positive SLNs were analyzed, and survival outcomes were examined.
RESULTS
Positive SLN findings were identified in 132 patients (10.7 %): 66 patients with ITCs (5.4 %), 36 patients with micrometastases (2.9 %), and 30 patients with macrometastases (2.4 %). Upstaging to microinvasive (n = 68, 5.5 %) or invasive (n = 259, 21.0 %) cancer occurred for 327 patients (26.5 %). Factors predicting positive SLNs included diagnosis by excisional biopsy (odds ratio [OR] 1.90; P = 0.007), papillary histology (OR 1.77; P = 0.006), DCIS larger than 2 cm (OR 1.55; P = 0.030), more than three interventions before SLND (4 interventions: OR 2.04; P = 0.022; ≥5 interventions: OR 3.87; P < 0.001), and occult invasion (microinvasive: OR 3.44; P = 0.001; invasive: OR 6.21; P < 0.001). The median follow-up period was 61.7 months. Patients who had pure DCIS with and without positive SLNs had equivalent survival rates (100.0 vs 99.7 %; P = 0.679). Patients with occult invasion and positive SLNs had the worst survival rate (91.7 %; P < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
Occult invasion and more than three total interventions were the strongest predictors of positive SLN findings in patients with an initial diagnosis of DCIS. This supports the theory of benign mechanical transport of breast epithelial cells. Except for patients at high risk for invasive disease, routine use of SLND in DCIS is not warranted.
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10.1245/s10434-015-4547-7
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pubmed_492_15278
|
OBJECTIVE
Frequency and titers of autoantibodies in patients with sickle-cell disease (SCD) have been reported as relatively high. In a prospective study of 88 patients, we examined this "hyper-autoreactivity" and its clinical consequences.
METHODS
For 1 year, patients with SCD were screened for the presence in their serum of antinuclear, anti-double-stranded DNA, antiextractible nuclear antigens, anticardiolipin antibodies, and rheumatoid factors. A population of 85 sex-matched individuals of similar ethnic origin served as controls.
RESULTS
Whereas prevalence of autoantibodies did not differ between the 2 groups, the type and rate of antinuclear antibodies were different. Autoantibodies from the SCD patients showed various immunofluorescence patterns, whereas only speckled patterns at low titers were present in controls. No antibody specificity was found in either group. SCD patients and controls displayed similar rates of anticardiolipin antibodies, but the SCD patients tended to be more frequently positive for rheumatoid factors. Six-year followup of the SCD patients did not provide any clinical evidence for onset of an autoimmune disease, except for 1 patient who developed rheumatoid arthritis, with increasing antinuclear antibodies followed by emergence of specific markers 5 years later.
CONCLUSION
Patients with SCD displayed high titers of autoantibodies. This observation may be due only to immune activation and/or dysfunction in SCD, as neither pathogenic specificity of autoantibodies nor autoimmune clinical signs appeared in the majority of cases in our study.
|
10.3899/jrheum.100667
|
pubmed_551_16960
|
CASE HISTORY
A 16-year-old dog was presented to the University of Melbourne Veterinary Clinic and Hospital for dyspnoea and tachypnoea, which had been occurring over the previous 48 h prior to presentation.
CLINICAL FINDINGS
Physical examination findings included marked wheezing and inspiratory noises on thoracic auscultation. Diagnostic tests performed revealed a large pulmonary mass, the presence of hypertrophic osteopathy in the forelimbs and an abnormal myocardium. The patient continued to deteriorate while in hospital, and was euthanased at the owner's request. A post-mortem examination was carried out, which revealed the presence of two separate pulmonary masses, one of which was completely occluding the mainstem bronchus.
DIAGNOSIS
One tumour was histologically classified as an adenocarcinoma, the other as an extraskeletal osteosarcoma. The osteosarcoma had metastasised to the myocardium, spleen and kidneys. The forelimb changes were consistent with hypertrophic osteopathy.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE
This is the first reported case of two separate pulmonary masses in a dog, one of which metastasised to the myocardium. Hypertrophic osteopathy is a common pathological condition associated with a broad spectrum of diseases. The aim of this case report is to highlight the condition and remind clinicians of its relatively common incidence, as well as to prompt clinicians to look for underlying pathology. The current understanding of the pathophysiology of hypertrophic osteopathy is also discussed.
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10.1080/00480169.2012.700628
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pubmed_457_9061
|
BackgroundMental disorders create high individual and societal costs and burden, partly because help-seeking is often delayed or completely avoided. Stigma related to mental disorders or mental health services is regarded as a main reason for insufficient help-seeking.AimsTo estimate the impact of four stigma types (help-seeking attitudes and personal, self and perceived public stigma) on active help-seeking in the general population.MethodA systematic review of three electronic databases was followed by random effect meta-analyses according to the stigma types.ResultsTwenty-seven studies fulfilled eligibility criteria. Participants' own negative attitudes towards mental health help-seeking (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.73-0.88) and their stigmatising attitudes towards people with a mental illness (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.69-0.98) were associated with less active help-seeking. Self-stigma showed insignificant association (OR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.76-1.03), whereas perceived public stigma was not associated.ConclusionsPersonal attitudes towards mental illness or help-seeking are associated with active help-seeking for mental problems. Campaigns promoting help-seeking by means of fighting mental illness-related stigma should target these personal attitudes rather than broad public opinions.
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10.1192/bjp.bp.116.189464
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pubmed_1021_4563
|
Atrial natriuretic peptide has been considered to be a major regulator in the body's water and salt homeostasis. Antagonizing those mechanisms leading to volume retention and overload (renin, angiotensin, aldosterone), ANP has been suggested to play a critical role in the pathology of certain diseases like renal failure, congestive heart failure or hypertension. In this regard, we measured ANP plasma concentration in normal healthy dogs and dogs with renal failure, congestive heart failure and Cushing syndrome. ANP levels were slightly decreased in dogs with Cushing disease (n = 9; 5.5 +/- 2 fmol/ml), increased in renal failure (n = 7; 16.2 +/- 5.8 fmol/ml, p less than 0.05) and markedly augmented in dogs with congestive heart failure (n = 14; 52.9 +/- 29.75 fmol/ml, p less than 0.01) as compared to healthy dogs (n = 6; 8.3 +/- 3.5 fmol/ml). Furthermore, characterization of the measured immunoreactivity (IR-ANP) revealed, that up to 50% of the IR-ANP in dogs with congestive heart failure corresponds to the ANP precursor molecule, not found in healthy subjects. This fact might present one possible explanation for the attenuated response to ANP in congestive heart failure. In addition, this finding may also serve a diagnostical purpose.
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pubmed_1021_4563
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pubmed_767_7958
|
INTRODUCTION
The status of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) is crucial to determining the surgical strategies for papillary thyroid micro carcinoma (PTMC). The objective of the study was to establish a nomogram to predict the possibility of CLNM in PTMC patients.
METHODS
A total of 8668 PTMC patients who underwent total thyroidectomy or lobectomy with central lymph node dissection (CLND) from 2006 to 2016 were retrospectively retrieved. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to examine risk factors associated with CLNM. A nomogram for predicting CLNM was established and internally validated.
RESULTS
Six variables significantly associated with CLNM were included in our model, these are age <55 years (odd ratio [OR] = 1.779, 95% confidence interval [CI],1.569-2.017; P < 0.001), male sex (OR = 1.718, 95%CI,1.543-1.913; P < 0.001), tumor size 0.5-1.0 cm (OR = 1.985,95%CI,1.761-2.238; P < 0.001), multifocal lesions (OR = 1.263, 95%CI,1.118-1.426; P < 0.001), extra thyroidal extension (ETE) (OR = 1.348, 95%CI,1.092-1.664; P = 0.005) and lateral lymph node metastasis (LLNM) (OR = 5.135, 95%CI, 4.236-6.225; P < 0.001). The discrimination of the prediction model was 0.711 (95%CI, 0.700-0.722; P < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the quantified risk stratification offered by our nomogram, clinicians might have a thorough discussion with PTMC patients during the both pre- and postoperative period. Prophylactic CLND and strict postoperative evaluation may be indicated when the patients have a high nomogram score.
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10.1016/j.ijsu.2018.05.023
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pubmed_923_10553
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We have developed an ELISA procedure for the detection of C3 nephritic factor (C3NeF), in which wells are coated with a fixed concentration of 2 micrograms C3b per well, and subsequently reacted with B and D. The presence of increasing concentrations of NiCl2 showed a NiCl2 concentration-dependent generation of C3bBb and very little solid-phase bound C3bBb was generated with MgCl2. The formation of solid-phase C3bBb in the presence of an optimal concentration of 1 mM NiCl2, was time-dependent and plateau values were reached after 30 min at 37 degrees C. IgG purified from the serum of a patient with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) type II containing C3NeF stabilizing activity was bound to the C3bBb generated on microwells in a dose-dependent manner whereas normal IgG exhibited only minor reactivity. C3NeF activity was measured using the ELISA method in patients with MPGN type II (n = 15) and other diseases (n = 17) and in normal controls (n = 15). Most of the patients with MPGN type II exhibited positive C3NeF at various levels, while two of the disease controls showed only slight reactivities. C3NeF titers measured by this new ELISA procedure correlated well with previously described hemolytic assays (r = 0.617, p < 0.01).
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10.1016/0022-1759(93)90160-9
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pubmed_769_21529
|
INTRODUCTION
Patients with thoracic malignancies are at increased risk for mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and a large number of intertwined prognostic variables have been identified so far.
METHODS
Capitalizing data from the Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration (TERAVOLT) registry, a global study created with the aim of describing the impact of COVID-19 in patients with thoracic malignancies, we used a clustering approach, a fast-backward step-down selection procedure, and a tree-based model to screen and optimize a broad panel of demographics and clinical COVID-19 and cancer characteristics.
RESULTS
As of April 15, 2021, a total of 1491 consecutive eligible patients from 18 countries were included in the analysis. With a mean observation period of 42 days, 361 events were reported with an all-cause case fatality rate of 24.2%. The clustering procedure screened 73 covariates in 13 clusters. A further multivariable logistic regression for the association between clusters and death was performed, resulting in five clusters significantly associated with the outcome. The fast-backward step-down selection procedure then identified the following seven major determinants of death: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-performance status (ECOG-PS) (OR = 2.47, 1.87-3.26), neutrophil count (OR = 2.46, 1.76-3.44), serum procalcitonin (OR = 2.37, 1.64-3.43), development of pneumonia (OR = 1.95, 1.48-2.58), C-reactive protein (OR = 1.90, 1.43-2.51), tumor stage at COVID-19 diagnosis (OR = 1.97, 1.46-2.66), and age (OR = 1.71, 1.29-2.26). The receiver operating characteristic analysis for death of the selected model confirmed its diagnostic ability (area under the receiver operating curve = 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.75-0.81). The nomogram was able to classify the COVID-19 mortality in an interval ranging from 8% to 90%, and the tree-based model recognized ECOG-PS, neutrophil count, and c-reactive protein as the major determinants of prognosis.
CONCLUSIONS
From 73 variables analyzed, seven major determinants of death have been identified. Poor ECOG-PS was found to have the strongest association with poor outcome from COVID-19. With our analysis, we provide clinicians with a definitive prognostication system to help determine the risk of mortality for patients with thoracic malignancies and COVID-19.
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10.1016/j.jtho.2021.12.015
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pubmed_550_19985
|
Understanding the behavior of basic biomolecular components as parts of larger systems is one of the goals of the developing field of synthetic biology. A multidisciplinary approach, involving mathematical and computational modeling in parallel with experimentation, is often crucial for gaining such insights and improving the efficiency of artificial gene network design. Here we used such an approach and developed a combinatorial promoter design strategy to characterize how the position and multiplicity of tetO(2) operator sites within the GAL1 promoter affect gene expression levels and gene expression noise in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We observed stronger transcriptional repression and higher gene expression noise as a single operator site was moved closer to the TATA box, whereas for multiple operator-containing promoters, we found that the position and number of operator sites together determined the dose-response curve and gene expression noise. We developed a generic computational model that captured the experimentally observed differences for each of the promoters, and more detailed models to successively predict the behavior of multiple operator-containing promoters from single operator-containing promoters. Our results suggest that the independent binding of single repressors is not sufficient to explain the more complex behavior of the multiple operator-containing promoters. Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of joint experimental-computational efforts and some of the challenges of using a bottom-up approach based on well characterized, isolated biomolecular components for predicting the behavior of complex, synthetic gene networks, e.g., the whole can be different from the sum of its parts.
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10.1073/pnas.0608451104
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pubmed_122_1770
|
Heart rate variability (HRV) can contain useful information about a subject, but its derivation traditionally relies on conductive electrocardiography (ECG) with adhesive electrodes. While photoplethysmography (PPG) can be acquired in much less intrusive ways, its signal differs fundamentally from ECG. First, it represents mechanical cardiac activity instead of electrical. Second, fiducial points of its waveform are much smoother compared to the QRS complex of the ECG. Still, studies have shown that meaningful HRV parameters can be extracted using PPG which small differences compared to ECG. In this work, we evaluate an algorithm termed "continuous local interval estimator (CLIE)" that analyzes the signal's entire waveform instead of individual fiducial points with respect to its potential in deriving beat-to-beat intervals and the time-domain HRV parameters SDNN, RMSSD, and pNN50 from the PPG. For evaluation, a polysomnography dataset consisting of more than 900,000 recorded heart beats from 33 subjects was used. The performance of CLIE was compared to three peak-detection strategies (peak-to-peak, peak-to-peak of first derivative, troth-to-troth) often found in the literature. For interval estimation and the proposed HRV parameters, CLIE outperformed the reference methods in terms of accuracy. Moreover, when the signal was contaminated with simulated noise, the performance of CLIE was affected only minimally compared to the references. While an adaptive prior could increase the performance of CLIE for very noisy signals, its application was found to deteriorate results when no noise was added. Thus, CLIE was found to be an accurate and robust tool when deriving HRV parameters from PPG signals, which can be augmented by an adaptive prior for potentially noisy signals, such as PPG imaging or wearable PPG.
|
10.1109/EMBC.2018.8512908
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pubmed_1014_2616
|
The primary objective of this article was to evaluate the overlap between community violence perpetration and victimization in a large, heterogeneous sample of adults with mental illnesses (N = 4,474). We also explored participant characteristics differentiating four categories of perpetration and victimization: non-victim/non-perpetrators, victims only, perpetrators only, and victim-perpetrators. Results indicated that adults with mental illnesses were unlikely to report violent outcomes but, when they did, were more likely to report perpetration and victimization, rather than perpetration alone. In addition, bivariate and multivariable analyses showed that sex, age, race/ethnicity, and primary diagnosis differed across categories. Victim-perpetrators, for example, were more likely to be young, Black, and have a primary diagnosis of bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, substance use disorder, or "other." Altogether, our findings provide evidence for a victim-perpetrator overlap in this population and suggest that preventive measures targeting violence and victimization may be more effective than those with separate strategies for each.
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10.1177/0886260514535102
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pubmed_543_19907
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Pancreatic stones of patients with chronic calcifying pancreatitis (CCP) are mostly made up of CaCO3 crystals. Formation and growth of such crystals is inhibited in vitro by lithostathine, a protein present in normal pancreatic juice. Decreased lithostathine activity was therefore suspected in patients with CCP, but comparison by immunoassay of lithostathine concentrations in the pancreatic juices of patients and controls led to conflicting results. This study shows that these discrepancies might have been caused in part by a remarkably high susceptibility of the protein to trypsin like cleavage, resulting in important structural changes and concomitant modifications of the epitopes. A novel lithostathine assay in juice was developed, based on separation of secretory proteins by high performance liquid chromatography. The chromatographic separation of lithostathine was based on hydrophobic interactions at pH 5.0 using a Phenyl-TSK column. This study showed with this assay that lithostathine concentrations (microgram/mg of total protein) were similar in CCP patients with alcoholic aetiology (mean (SD) 6.3 (2.7)) and other aetiologies (7.2 (3.7)), but one third of those estimated in patients without pancreatic disease (16.7 (4.3)). Similar concentrations were found, however, in chronic alcoholic patients without CCP (6.6 (3.3)) and in patients with CCP. It was concluded that decreased lithostathine concentration is associated with CCP, although such a decrease is not sufficient by itself for the disease to occur.
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10.1136/gut.36.4.630
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pubmed_14_18156
|
BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS
The Royal College of General Practitioners has designed its Fellowship by Assessment (FBA) programme with the twin goals of promoting higher standards of care and offering GPs a professional challenge. By November 2000, 223 eligible doctors (2%) had opted to take FBA. This number is increasing annually. There is, however, little research to account for why GPs undertake it, or what the barriers might be. The aim of our study was to investigate GPs' experience and thinking on this issue.
METHODS
A total of 13 GPs who had attained Fellowship by Assessment in the Tamar and Severn Faculties were invited to participate in a qualitative study. They were identified from the list of RCGP Fellows in the Institute of General Practice, University of Exeter, and purposefully selected to include trainers and non-trainers, men and women, rural and urban practitioners, and single-handed and large practices. Analysis of in-depth interviews was informed by grounded theory.
FINDINGS
FBA served to acknowledge high standards of care. There was some variation in views about FBA, however, ranging from a perspective which prized the professional award, to the view that endorsed it as a pragmatic and useful way of structuring and monitoring improvements. Fellowship by Assessment improves the care of patients and empowers the doctors by improving their confidence. It is, however, hugely time-consuming and while our findings suggest it should be encouraged, there is a need for ways to be found whereby doctors may be supported in this form of professional development.
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10.1046/j.1365-2923.2002.01173.x
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pubmed_1020_7780
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Several psychotropic drugs can cause cytopenia, especially after increasing dosages or initiating treatment. However, cytopenia in patients with psychiatric disorders can also be due to other conditions such as leukemia. In this report, we discuss two cases of cytopenia that occurred during the adjustment of psychotropic medications in patients with severe psychiatric illness. The initial diagnosis in each case was drug-induced cytopenia; however, later, the cause of cytopenia was found to be acute promyelocytic leukemia. When cytopenia is observed while increasing the dosage of psychotropic drugs, suspicious drugs should be discontinued, though the possibility that cytopenia could be due to other reasons should be considered. If there are no signs of recovering blood cells or if cytopenia is severe, psychiatrists should consult hematologists promptly.
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10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102952
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pubmed_262_224
|
We present an optical method for patterning SERS (surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy)--enhancing aggregates of gold nanoparticles, using a focused laser beam to optically trap the nanoparticles in suspension. At high laser powers, heat generated from the plasmonic excitation causes boiling of the aqueous suspension and the formation of gaseous bubbles of water vapor. By measuring the Raman peak of the hydroxyl bond of water, the temperature in the laser spot during the aggregation can be determined in situ. The hydrophilic nanoparticles are found to aggregate at the liquid-vapor interface. By allowing the suspension to dry, a ring of gold nanoparticles is deposited on the substrate, producing a highly SERS-active region. These aggregates are studied using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy.
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10.1088/0957-4484/21/10/105304
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pubmed_31_12618
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Obesity is generally caused by quantitative changes in adipocyte differentiation and fat metabolism. Only a few studies have been determined the effect of red beans extract on obesity and plasma cholesterol concentration. We have been studied the functional activities of red-bean extracts including anti-oxidative effect against DNA and cell damages. Histological study including micro CT analysis showed that the accumulation of fat in hepatocytes and intestines was significantly decreased in red bean extract treated group. In addition, plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels were decreased in blood samples. In addition, it was confirmed that the red bean extract inhibited the expression of PPARγ, Fabp4 and RETN genes, which regulate total adipocyte differentiation and lipid metabolism. Red bean extract inhibits the expressions of transcription factors associated with adipocyte differentiation in a dose-dependent manner, thereby inhibiting fat accumulation and decreasing blood lipid levels in obese mice induced by high fat diet.
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10.1007/s10068-018-0421-2
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pubmed_421_6929
|
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a major cause of death and disability worldwide and food intake plays an important role in its onset or prevention. It is also well known that consumption of red meat (processed and unprocessed) is associated with an increased incidence of CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and premature death. However, little is known about the association of consumption of poultry, fish, and plant protein with the incidence of CVD, CHD, and mortality. Several recent studies, reviews, and meta-analyses have shown an inverse association of consumption of these foods with the incidence of CVD, CHD, and death. In order to get a better perspective about the current consumption of these foods, a focused Medline search of the English language literature was conducted between 2010 and 2020 using the terms poultry, fish, plant protein consumption, cardiovascular disease, CHD, mortality; 28 articles with pertinent information were retrieved. The analysis of data from these articles suggests an inverse relationship between the consumption of these foods and the incidence of de novo CVD or worsening of preexisting CVD. They also demonstrate that the consumption of these foods is still low and that great effort should be made to inform the public about the benefits of switching from red meat to increased consumption of poultry, fish, and plant protein. All the data from the retrieved articles regarding the consumption of these foods, together with collateral literature, will be discussed in this review.
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10.1097/CRD.0000000000000392
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pubmed_10_13163
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Congenital tracheobiliary or bronchobiliary fistula is a rare developmental anomaly with a persistent communication between the biliary system and the trachea or bronchus. We report a case of a congenital tracheobiliary fistula and hypoplastic common hepatic duct associated with hypoplastic left heart syndrome in a 5-day old boy presenting with bilious endotracheal-tube secretions. The tracheobiliary fistula was treated by surgical resection. Subsequent cholangiography demonstrated dilated intrahepatic bile ducts and a residual fistulous tract with cystic proximal stump that were successfully decompressed by transhepatic drainage catheters before corrective biliary surgery.
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10.2484/rcr.v6i4.564
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pubmed_666_22316
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The ability to modulate the efficacy of synaptic communication between neurons constitutes an essential property critical for normal brain function. Animal models have proved invaluable in revealing a wealth of diverse cellular mechanisms underlying varied plasticity modes. However, to what extent these processes are mirrored in humans is largely uncharted thus questioning their relevance in human circuit function. In this study, we focus on neurogliaform cells, that possess specialized physiological features enabling them to impart a widespread inhibitory influence on neural activity. We demonstrate that this prominent neuronal subtype, embedded in both mouse and human neural circuits, undergo remarkably similar activity-dependent modulation manifesting as epochs of enhanced intrinsic excitability. In principle, these evolutionary conserved plasticity routes likely tune the extent of neurogliaform cell mediated inhibition thus constituting canonical circuit mechanisms underlying human cognitive processing and behavior.
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pubmed_666_22316
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pubmed_788_13354
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Human red cell anion exchanger AE1 (band 3) is an electroneutral Cl-HCO3- exchanger with 12-14 transmembrane spans (TMs). Previous work using Xenopus oocytes has shown that two co-expressed fragments of AE1 lacking TMs 6 and 7 are capable of forming a stilbene disulphonate-sensitive (36)Cl-influx pathway, reminiscent of intact AE1. In the present study, we create a single construct, AE1Delta(6: 7), representing the intact protein lacking TMs 6 and 7. We expressed this construct in Xenopus oocytes and evaluated it employing a combination of two-electrode voltage clamp and pH-sensitive microelectrodes. We found that, whereas AE1Delta(6: 7) has some electroneutral Cl-base exchange activity, the protein also forms a novel anion-conductive pathway that is blocked by DIDS. The mutation Lys(539)Ala at the covalent DIDS-reaction site of AE1 reduced the DIDS sensitivity, demonstrating that (1) the conductive pathway is intrinsic to AE1Delta(6: 7) and (2) the conductive pathway has some commonality with the electroneutral anion-exchange pathway. The conductance has an anion-permeability sequence: NO3- approximately I- > NO2- > Br- > Cl- > SO4(2-) approximately HCO3- approximately gluconate- approximately aspartate- approximately cyclamate-. It may also have a limited permeability to Na+ and the zwitterion taurine. Although this conductive pathway is not a usual feature of intact mammalian AE1, it shares many properties with the anion-conductive pathways intrinsic to two other Cl-HCO3- exchangers, trout AE1 and mammalian SLC26A7.
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10.1113/jphysiol.2007.128389
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pubmed_314_3925
|
Brain radiotherapy aims at controlling the pathological lesion(s) as well as avoiding damaging critical structures. However, side effects may occur. Neurocognitive function is often involved impairing quality of life. This dysfunction is among the most frequent complications of brain irradiation. Sparing as much as feasible hippocampus and/or other critical structures like the motor unit might reduce neurocognitive dysfunction, motor disturbance and other complications occurring after whole brain radiotherapy or radiosurgery.
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pubmed_314_3925
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pubmed_6_7026
|
Five previously known species were attributed to the Lycocerus fainanus species group, including L. inopaciceps (Pic 1926), L. oberthueri (Gorham 1889), L. oudai (Švihla 2004), L. metallipennis (Fairmaire 1887), and L. nigripes (Wittmer, 1995). Four new species of this group were discovered from China and Vietnam, L. binotatus sp. nov., L. testacicollis sp. nov., L. daliensis sp. nov., and L. vietnamensis sp. nov. An updated key to all species was provided. A geographical distribution map is presented, which shows that all the members were located between 18.69041-33.93441° N, and between 98.61413-121.77102° E. The ancestral geographical range was reconstructed based on a phylogeny of morphological data by the Bayesian Binary MCMC method. The result showed that the spatial origin of L. fainanus species group was probably located in northern Vietnam and southwest China. The divergence of the species in southwest China and Taiwan was caused by vicariance about 24 Ma ago, when the latter was separated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the remaining species of mainland China all originated from Taiwan after traveling around Southeast Asia and back to China. Nevertheless, this conclusion should be verified when fossil evidence and molecular data are available.
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10.3390/insects12050445
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pubmed_768_2276
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The cooperativity effects between the O/N-H∙∙∙O hydrogen-bonding and Na⁺∙∙∙O cation-molecule interactions in the 1: 2 (Na⁺: N-(Hydroxymethyl)acetamide) systems were investigated at the B3LYP/6-311++G**, MP2(full)/6-311++G** and MP2(full)/aug-cc-pvtz levels. The thermodynamic cooperativity calculations were also carried out for two pathways of the ternary-complex formation. The result shows that, in most ternary complexes, the O/N-H∙∙∙O and Na⁺∙∙∙O interactions are weakened in comparison with those in binary systems, leading to the anti-cooperativity effects, in particular in the complexes in which only the Na⁺∙∙∙O interactions exist. Shifts of electron density confirm the existence of anti-cooperativity. The increase of favorable enthalpic contribution leads to the positive cooperativity effect with negative ΔG(coop.) on forming the ternary complex by initial N-(Hydroxymethyl)acetamide dimer followed by addition of Na⁺. In forming the ternary complex by Na⁺∙∙∙N-(Hydroxymethyl)acetamide with the second N-(Hydroxymethyl)acetamide unit, the large unfavorable entropy change leads to the negative cooperativity effect with positive ΔG(coop.). The ternary complex is more easily formed by the pathway in which Na⁺ binds to N-(Hydroxymethyl)acetamide dimer.
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10.1007/s00894-014-2154-3
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pubmed_948_20938
|
With the continuing advancement in the treatment of childhood leukemia and the lengthened survival of these patients, an increased incidence of abdominal complications has been observed. A retrospective analysis of 364 patients with leukemia treated at the National Taiwan University Hospital from January 1977 through April 1988 was undertaken. Eleven patients (3.0%) developed abdominal complications during their course of disease, including acute appendicitis, intussusception, intestinal perforation, ovarian cyst rupture, etc. All of these patients had abdominal complications during the initial presentation or relapse of leukemia, and 9 (82%) of them had just received chemotherapy. Ten patients (91%) had thrombocytopenia and 7 (64%) had leukopenia. Blood cultures were positive in 5 patients (45%), and gram-negative enteric bacilli were isolated in 4 of them. All 5 septicemic patients had leukopenia or neutropenia. The clinical manifestations were nonspecific and were often masked. Most of the complications occurred in the right lower abdominal structures. Of the 7 children treated surgically, 3 had long term survival. Among the 4 patients who did not receive an operation, only 1 survived for more than 4 weeks. The mean length of survival tended to be longer in patients with additional surgical treatment. Prompt diagnosis and early aggressive treatment, under modern supportive facilities, appear to offer a more favorable outcome.
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pubmed_948_20938
|
pubmed_1032_2371
|
A series of Ca2BO3Cl:Ce3+, Tb3+, Sm3+ are successfully synthesized by a high temperature solid state reaction. And the crystal structure, luminescence property and energy transfer mechanism of Ce3+/Sm3+, Tb3+/Sm3+ and Ce3+/Tb3+/Sm3+ in Ca2BO3Cl are investigated. There is an interesting phenomenon that the right side of the Ce3+ emission spectra in Ca2BO3Cl:Ce3+, Sm3+ compresses gradually with increasing the Sm3+ concentration. By means of refinement, it can be found that Sm3+ ions are mainly occupied in the Ca2 sites, because the cell of the Ca2 lattice is easily occupied. Then, the emission peak2 of Ce3+ in Ca2 sites occurs to blue shift. While the emission peak1 of Ce3+ in Ca1 sites is basically stability. However, the emission of Ce3+ in Ca2BO3Cl:Ce3+, Tb3+, Sm3+ have different changes with increasing the Sm3+ concentration that the emission peaks of Ce3+ shift to long wave at first then to short wave and the FWHM remains stability. This can be attributed to the existence of Tb3+. For the energy transfer mechanism, according to Dexter's energy transfer theory and Reisfeld's approximation, the energy transfer process of Ce3+/Sm3+ and Tb3+/Sm3+ should be the dipole-dipole interaction. And white emitting phosphor is achieved by the efficient energy transfer.
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10.1016/j.saa.2019.01.038
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pubmed_759_11311
|
Cytologic findings of fine needle aspiration from the parametrial region are compared with the clinical course of 54 patients with and without recurrence after therapy of gynecologic cancer. Parametrial aspiration cytolovy is as reliable as histology done by van Silverman biopsy. The frequency of complications and insufficient material is low. Anesthesia is not necessary. The procedure is simple. Aspiration cytology seems to be a progress in detecting recurrence of cancer in the parametrial soft tissue region.
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pubmed_759_11311
|
pubmed_527_16144
|
BACKGROUND
Adolescent peer group self-identification refers to adolescents' affiliation with reputation-based peer groups such as "Goths" or "Jocks." These groups tend to vary on normative characteristics, including the group members' attitudes and behaviors. This article examined whether adolescents' baseline peer group self-identification predicted their self-reported relational and physical aggression 1 year later.
METHODS
Self-report data were collected from 1614 students from 9 regular and 9 continuation (alternative) high schools in Southern California, at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Subjects' mean baseline age was 15.21 years (SD = 1.18) and 51.6% of the subjects were female.
RESULTS
Findings indicated that compared with self-identified "Regular" or "Normal" students, adolescents who identified with high-risk peer groups (eg, "Druggies,""Goths") tended to report higher relational and physical aggression 1 year later, controlling for baseline aggression and demographic variables. In addition, adolescents' self-identification with high-status peer groups (eg, "Jocks,""Populars") was predictive of higher relational aggression 1 year later. Gender and school type (ie, regular vs continuation) were not found to moderate these effects.
CONCLUSIONS
It appears that peer group self-identification is a salient predictor of physical and relational aggression across gender and school type. Adolescents who identify with high-risk peer groups tend to report higher levels of physical as well as relational aggression in the future. In addition, adolescents who affiliate with elite groups tend to become more relationally aggressive over time. School-based prevention programs targeting aggression may benefit from addressing the impacts of peer group self-identification on adolescents' aggressive behavior.
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10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00498.x
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pubmed_49_8088
|
Specific human IgG antibodies bound to a Trypanosoma cruzi envelope were internalized by antigen receptor-mediated endocytosis. Ferritin conjugated antibodies and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated IgG were found inside parasite cytoplasmic vesicles. Nonspecific IgG that did not bind to the external membrane was not internalized by the parasite. The ratio of 3H-protein A labeled: specific IgG internalization by parasites in the exponential growth phase (95% epimastigotes) was much smaller than that of parasites in the late stationary growth phase (38% trypomastigotes). Antibodies bound to the latter parasite forms almost disappeared from their outer membranes after 12 hr incubation at 27 degrees C. Results of experiments in which membrane bound antibodies were removed by an excess of pronase showed that only small amounts of radiolabeled IgG were found inside the parasites. The fate of immunoglobulins that vanished from external membrane receptors and did not accumulate inside the cells was explained by experiments in which the supernatants of IgG-3H-protein A labeled parasites were precipitated with trichloroacetic acid (TCA). In these, membrane-bound antibodies were taken in and degraded by the parasites as increased amounts of free radiolabel appeared in the supernatants as functions of incubation time and parasite stage.
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10.4269/ajtmh.1989.40.165
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pubmed_133_11600
|
This regulation establishes a time-limited tolerance for combined residues of avermectin in or on avocado. This action is in response to EPA's granting of an emergency exemption under section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act authorizing use of the pesticide on avocado. This regulation establishes a maximum permissible level for residues of avermectin B1 and its delta-8,9-isomer in this food commodity pursuant to section 408(1)(6) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. The tolerance will expire and is revoked on September 30, 2000.
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pubmed_133_11600
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pubmed_840_5621
|
PURPOSE
To test whether environmental pollutants could affect fertility in humans.
METHODS
31 women and 16 men from Tanzania and 21 couples from Germany were included (n = 89). Pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls were measured in serum, follicular fluid or seminal plasma by gaschromatography and related to sperm quality and pregnancy rates.
RESULTS
Higher concentrations of DDT+DDE and dieldrin in Tanzania and higher concentrations of PCBs in Germany and in men were detected. All compounds showed higher concentrations in serum and lowest concentrations in seminal plasma. A lower pregnancy rate in German women with high serum concentrations of DDT+DDE was observed. The toxins had no impact on sperm quality.
CONCLUSIONS
The distribution of toxins between agricultural and industrial countries is different. Seminal plasma seems to be inert against chemicals. In patients with high serum concentrations of DDT and DDE pregnancy rates were impaired.
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10.1007/s10815-006-9069-6
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pubmed_613_17561
|
Cancer development is often associated with increased fibroblast proliferation and extensive fibrosis; however, the role of fibroblasts during carcinogenesis remains largely unknown. Using the 7,12-dimethylbenz-(a)anthracene and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-induced two-stage skin carcinogenesis model, we demonstrated here that there was a massive accumulation and proliferation of fibroblasts in the skin shortly after application of carcinogen. Selective abatement of these cells during the promotion stage drastically decreased incidence and progression of papillomas. This correlated well with reduced macrophage infiltration and impaired cytokine storm in the affected skin. 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate stimulated skin fibroblasts, secreting high levels of monocyte chemotactic protein-1, and neutralization of this chemokine eliminated almost completely the fibroblast-induced chemotaxis of macrophages. These results strongly suggest that fibroblasts promote skin tumor development by producing monocyte chemotactic protein-1 and maintaining chronic inflammation.
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10.1016/j.ajpath.2010.11.017
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pubmed_315_13796
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is thought to be caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-associated coronavirus. We studied viral shedding of SARS coronavirus to improve diagnosis and infection control. Reverse-transcriptase PCR was done on 2134 specimens of different types. 355 (45%) specimens of nasopharyngeal aspirates and 150 (28%) of faeces were positive for SARS coronavirus RNA. Positive rates peaked at 6-11 days after onset of illness for nasopharyngeal aspirates (87 of 149 [58%], to 37 of 62 [60%]), and 9-14 days for faeces (15 of 22 [68%], to 26 of 37 [70%]). Overall, peak viral loads were reached at 12-14 days of illness when patients were probably in hospital care, which would explain why hospital workers were prone to infection. Low rate of viral shedding in the first few days of illness meant that early isolation measures would probably be effective.
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10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16255-7
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pubmed_95_6002
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PURPOSE
To analyze the results of phototherapeutic keratectomy.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
We performed 193-nm excimer laser phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) in 252 eyes of 216 patients suffering from pain and/or decrease in visual acuity. One hundred and three eyes had recurrent erosions of the cornea, 86 eyes underwent excimer laser smoothing of the cornea after pterygium surgery, 29 eyes had a bandlike keratopathy (25 rough, 4 smooth) and 34 eyes had other pathologic conditions such as amyloidosis of the cornea, anterior corneal dystrophies, scars after injuries, alkali burns, superficial stromal dystrophies and infections. Recurrent erosions and epithelial dystrophies were treated with 15-20 pulses (160-200 mJ/cm2, 8 mm ablation zone) after mechanical abrasion of the epithelium. Removal of corneal opacities and scars required the use of a masking fluid (methyl-cellulose) in different concentrations and slit-lamp control (integrated in the delivery system of the excimer laser).
RESULTS
Some 91% of the eyes with recurrent erosions were recurrence-free. Fifty-two per cent of the eyes with pterygium had recurrences if the baresclera technique was used and 33% of the eyes if a free conjunctival graft was used. The difference was not significant. All of the patients with bandlike keratopathy were pain-free. In 88% of the eyes with special indications the treatment goal was achieved. No positive effect was seen after alkali burn, in a patient with anterior membrane dystrophy (Grayson-Wilbrandt corneal dystrophy) or in a patient with a corneal protuberance. In one patient with scleroperikeratitis a late recurrence of the opacity was observed 3 years after surgery. A loss of best corrected visual acuity was found only in one patient with bullous keratopathy in whom the treatment goal was the reduction of pain. All patients with smooth bandlike keratopathy had an improvement in best corrected visual acuity of at least one line. About 70% of patients with special indications improved by at least one line, up to nine lines. A possible hyperopic shift in all groups could be minimized using a large ablation zone.
CONCLUSION
PTK with the 193-nm excimer laser is a safe and effective treatment for many superficial diseases of the cornea.
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10.1007/BF01739639
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pubmed_149_4123
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BACKGROUND
Neonatal arterial ischemic stroke is a leading cause of cerebral palsy and lifelong disability. Diffusion-weighted imaging has revolutionized diagnosis and facilitated outcome prognostication in acute neonatal arterial ischemic stroke. Diaschisis refers to changes in brain areas functionally connected but structurally remote from primary injury. We hypothesized that acute diffusion-weighted imaging can quantify cerebral diaschisis and is associated with outcome from neonatal arterial ischemic stroke.
METHODS
Subjects were identified from a prospective, population-based research cohort (Alberta Perinatal Stroke Project). Inclusion criteria were unilateral middle cerebral artery neonatal arterial ischemic stroke, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging within 10 days of birth, and more than 12-months follow-up (pediatric stroke outcome measure). Diaschisis was characterized and quantified using a validated software method (ImageJ). Volumetric analysis assessed atrophy of affected structures. Diaschisis scores were corrected for infarct size and compared with outcomes (Mann-Whitney).
RESULTS
From 20 eligible neonatal arterial ischemic strokes, two were excluded for poor image quality. Of 18 remaining (61% male, median age 3.2 days), 16 (89%) demonstrated diaschisis. Thalamus (88%) was the most common location in addition to corpus callosum (50%). Age at imaging was not associated with diaschisis. Affected structures demonstrated atrophy on imaging. Long-term outcomes available in 81% (median age 7.5 years) were not associated with diaschisis scores.
CONCLUSIONS
Cerebral diaschisis occurs in neonatal arterial ischemic stroke and can be quantified with diffusion-weighted imaging. Occurrence is common and should not be mistaken for additional infarction. Determining clinical significance will require larger samples with well-characterized long-term outcomes.
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10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2019.04.012
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pubmed_1031_21854
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In the spider mite Tetranychus urticae photoperiodic time measurement proceeds accurately in orange-red light of 580 nm and above in light/dark cycles with a period length of 20 h but not in 'natural' cycles with a period length of 24 h. To explain these results it is hypothesized that the photoperiodic clock in the spider mite is sensitive to orange-red light, but the Nanda-Hamner rhythm (a circadian rhythm with a free-running period tau of 20 h involved in the photoperiodic response) is not and consequently free runs in orange-red light. To test this hypothesis a zeitgeber was sought that could entrain the Nanda-Hamner rhythm to a 24-h cycle without inducing diapause itself, in order to manipulate the rhythm independently from the orange-red sensitive photoperiodic clock. A suitable zeitgeber was found to be a thermoperiod with a 12-h warm phase and a 12-h cold phase. Combining the thermoperiod with the long-night orange-red light/dark regime, both with a cycle length of 24 h, resulted in a high diapause incidence, although neither regime was capable of inducing diapause on its own. The conclusion is that the Nanda-Hamner rhythm is necessary for the realization of the photoperiodic response, but is not part of the photoperiodic clock, because photoperiodic time measurement takes place in orange-red light whereas the rhythm is not able to 'see' the orange-red light. It is speculated that the Nanda-Hamner rhythm is involved in the timely synthesis of a substrate for the photoperiodic clock in the spider mite.
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10.1016/s0022-1910(03)00097-0
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pubmed_543_11196
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This study investigates the question as to whether, in Helicobacter pylori (H.p.) gastritis, any statistically significant relationships are to be found between the following histological parameters: degree of H.p. colonisation, the degree and activity of gastritis, degree of replacement of the foveolar epithelium by regenerating epithelium, and degree of mucus depletion. Forceps biopsy material obtained from 240 patients with NUD and H.p. gastritis (3 specimens from the antrum, 2 from the corpus) were investigated. The 5 histological parameters employed were graduated semiquantitatively as follows: 0 = normal findings, 1 = minimal, 2 = low-grade, 3 = medium-grade, 4 = high-grade. The evaluation showed that the degree and activity of gastritis, the degree of replacement of foveolar epithelium by regenerating epithelial cells, and the degree of mucus depletion are dependent upon the degree of H.p. colonisation (p < 0.0001). The gastritis parameters were more marked in the antrum than in the corpus. The intercorrelations were highly significant for all five parameters investigated, both in the antrum and corpus (p < 0.0001). On the basis of these results it is concluded that for the histological assessment of H.p. gastritis, in addition to H.p. colonisation, and the degree and activity of gastritis, but also the state of the foveolar epithelium and the mucus production of these epithelial cells should be considered.
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pubmed_543_11196
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pubmed_453_7576
|
The authors make a review about the indications and benefits of the use of nitrates in the treatment of acute and chronic cardiac failure, considering their use for a short and a long period. The advantages are reported, showing the reduction of pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and the increase of systolic output and consequently of the cardiac eject. This effect may be traceable both to the benefic effect on the mitral valve (perhaps incontinent), that in the pericadic "contraist". The reduction of the filling pressures increases the tolerance to the effort, delays the choice of the time for cardiac transplant and prolongs the survival with amelioration.
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pubmed_453_7576
|
pubmed_74_2909
|
BACKGROUND
Concomitant use of foscarnet and intravenous pentamidine can very frequently cause severe hypocalcemia. However, it is unknown whether aerosolized pentamidine has a similar adverse interaction with foscarnet. The present study was aimed at examining the safety profile of concomitantly used foscarnet and aerosolized pentamidine in patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
METHODS
Data from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell recipients who had been administered foscarnet therapy for over 7 days were analyzed. We compared electrolyte abnormalities and serum creatinine level between patients who received aerosolized pentamidine concomitantly and those who did not.
RESULTS
A total of 84 consecutive patients and 135 episodes of foscarnet therapy between May 2011 and April 2016 were evaluable. Of these 135 episodes, 25 episodes of therapy included concurrent therapy with 300 mg dose of aerosolized pentamidine once a month (pentamidine group) and 110 episodes did not (non-pentamidine group). The incident rates of grade 3/4 hypocalcemia did not significantly differ between the pentamidine and non-pentamidine groups (P = .207; 0/25 [0%] vs 10/110 [9.1%], respectively). In addition, we observed no significant difference in the incident rates of grade 3/4 serum creatinine increase between the two groups (P = 1.00; 0/25 [0%] vs 4/110 [3.6%], respectively).
CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that the drug interactions between foscarnet and aerosolized pentamidine may not be clinically significant.
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10.1111/tid.13239
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pubmed_1044_17134
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BACKGROUND
The colours of flowers are of key interest to plant and pollination biologists. An increasing number of studies have investigated the importance of saturation of flower colours (often called 'spectral purity' or 'chroma') for visibility to pollinators, but the conceptual, physiological and behavioural foundations for these metrics as well as the calculations used rest on slender foundations.
METHODS
We discuss the caveats of colour attributes that are derived from human perception, and in particular spectral purity and chroma, as variables in flower colour analysis. We re-analysed seven published datasets encompassing 774 measured reflectance spectra to test for correlations between colour contrast, spectral purity and chroma.
MAIN FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
We identify several concerns with common calculation procedures in animal colour spaces. Studies on animal colour vision provide no ground to assume that any pollinator perceives (or responds to) saturation, chroma or spectral purity in the way humans do. A re-analysis of published datasets revealed that values for colour contrast between flowers and their background are highly correlated with measures for spectral purity and chroma, which invalidates treating these factors as independent variables as is currently commonplace. Strikingly, spectral purity and chroma - both of which are metrics for saturation and are often used synonymously - are not correlated at all. We conclude that alternative, behaviourally validated metrics for the visibility of flowers to pollinators, such as colour contrast and achromatic contrast, are better in understanding the role of flower colour in plant-pollinator signalling.
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10.1093/aob/mcac069
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pubmed_634_1044
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The fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique is used today by companies engaged in the fabrication of traffic signs for the manufacture of light-emitting diode LED spotlights. In this sector, the surface properties of the elements used (surface finish, hydrophobic features) are decisive because surfaces that retain little dirt and favor self-cleaning behavior are needed. A design of experiments (L27) with five factors and three levels has been carried out. The factors studied were: Layer height (LH), print temperature (T), print speed (PS), print acceleration (PA), and flow rate (F). Polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) specimens of 25.0 × 25.0 × 2.4 mm have been printed and, in each of them, the surface roughness (R, R), sliding angle (SA0, SA90), and contact angle (CA0, CA90) in both perpendicular directions have been measured. Taguchi and ANOVA analysis shows that the most influential variables in this case are printing acceleration for R (p-value = 0.052) and for SA0 (p-value = 0.051) and flow rate for R (p-value = 0.001) and for SA90 (p-value = 0.012). Although the ANOVA results for the contact angle are not significant, specimen 8 (PA = 1500 mm/s2 and flow rate F = 110%) and specimen 10 (PA =1500 mm/s2 and F = 100%) have reached contact angle values above or near the limit value for hydrophobia, respectively.
|
10.3390/ma12152499
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pubmed_1034_237
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Field metabolic rate (FMR) links the energy budget of an animal with the constraints of its ecosystem, but is particularly difficult to measure for small organisms. Landscape degradation exacerbates environmental adversity and reduces resource availability, imposing higher costs of living for many organisms. Here, we report a significant effect of landscape degradation on the FMR of free-flying Apis mellifera, estimated using 86Rb radio-isotopic turnover. We validated the relationship between 86Rb kb and metabolic rate for worker bees in the laboratory using flow-through respirometry. We then released radioisotopically enriched individuals into a natural woodland and a heavily degraded and deforested plantation. FMRs of worker bees in natural woodland vegetation were significantly higher than in a deforested landscape. Nectar consumption, estimated using 22Na radio-isotopic turnover, also differed significantly between natural and degraded landscapes. In the deforested landscape, we infer that the costs of foraging exceeded energetic availability, and honeybees instead foraged less and depended more on stored resources in the hive. If this is generally the case with increasing landscape degradation, this will have important implications for the provision of pollination services and the effectiveness and resilience of ecological restoration practice.
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10.1098/rspb.2016.2676
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pubmed_612_20833
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INTRODUCTION
Mortality and morbidity in patients with transposition of the great arteries after an arterial switch operation depends mainly on the status of coronary perfusion. Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) provides accurate information on coronary morphology, however its use in these patients is not yet routine procedure.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to assess its accuracy to identify acquired coronary anomalies in this population, compared to conventional angiography in a subset of patients, and assess its impact on postoperative management.
METHODS
Retrospective analysis of clinical data on transposition of the great arteries in patients who underwent CCTA between January 2013 and September 2017.
RESULTS
Between January 2013 and September 2017, 18 patients underwent CCTA. Seven patients (39%) disclosed iatrogenic coronary lesions (stenosis 1; kinking 2, occlusion 1; filiform coronary 3). The exam was performed in 78% of patients due to suggestion of myocardial ischemia (symptoms or altered exams). Only 16% needed to undergo additional exams, and in four patients the CCTA result modified therapeutic management. Conventional coronary angiography was also performed in 10 patients (55%), and in three cases, the results were discordant with underestimation or non-identification of coronary lesions on conventional angiography. The medium radiation dose used was 2.4 mSv and no complications after CT were reported.
CONCLUSION
CCTA accurately identified iatrogenic postoperative coronary lesions and it has proven to be superior to conventional angiography in this population. It should be performed routinely in this group of patients, even in the absence of symptoms.
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10.1016/j.repc.2020.11.013
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pubmed_512_9874
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Encephalocraniocutaneous lipomatosis (ECCL) is a sporadic condition characterized by ocular, cutaneous, and central nervous system anomalies. Key clinical features include a well-demarcated hairless fatty nevus on the scalp, benign ocular tumors, and central nervous system lipomas. Seizures, spasticity, and intellectual disability can be present, although affected individuals without seizures and with normal intellect have also been reported. Given the patchy and asymmetric nature of the malformations, ECCL has been hypothesized to be due to a post-zygotic, mosaic mutation. Despite phenotypic overlap with several other disorders associated with mutations in the RAS-MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways, the molecular etiology of ECCL remains unknown. Using exome sequencing of DNA from multiple affected tissues from five unrelated individuals with ECCL, we identified two mosaic mutations, c.1638C>A (p.Asn546Lys) and c.1966A>G (p.Lys656Glu) within the tyrosine kinase domain of FGFR1, in two affected individuals each. These two residues are the most commonly mutated residues in FGFR1 in human cancers and are associated primarily with CNS tumors. Targeted resequencing of FGFR1 in multiple tissues from an independent cohort of individuals with ECCL identified one additional individual with a c.1638C>A (p.Asn546Lys) mutation in FGFR1. Functional studies of ECCL fibroblast cell lines show increased levels of phosphorylated FGFRs and phosphorylated FRS2, a direct substrate of FGFR1, as well as constitutive activation of RAS-MAPK signaling. In addition to identifying the molecular etiology of ECCL, our results support the emerging overlap between mosaic developmental disorders and tumorigenesis.
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10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.02.006
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pubmed_176_9884
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CdZnTe is one of the most promising semiconductor material in the field of digital X-ray imaging, and may be operated at room temperature. To improve the detector characteristics, ternary systems such as Cd1-xZnxTe were grown by the high pressure Bridgman (HPG) technique. The signal performance characteristics of quasi-resistive Cd1-xZnxTe semiconductor detectors, was studied at different directions of irradiation, within the X-ray diagnostic energy range. The experimental results suggest that the total efficiency of these semiconductor detectors depends upon the energy absorption efficiency as well as the charge collection efficiency. This imaging detector allows one to investigate methods to improve the detection and imaging performance parameters as part of the development of an X-ray imaging system.
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pubmed_176_9884
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pubmed_491_12603
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On the basis of the icing-delay performance and ice adhesion strength, the anti-icing potential of the superhydrophobic surface has been well-investigated in the past few years. The present work mainly emphasized the investigations of ice nucleation and growth to fully explore the anti-icing potential of the superhydrophobic surface. We took the various surfaces ranging from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic as the research objects and, combining the classical nucleation theory, discussed the ice nucleation behaviors of the water droplets on these sample surfaces under the condition of supercooling. Meanwhile, the macroscopical growth processes of ice on these surfaces were analyzed on the basis of the growth mechanism of the ice nucleus. It was found that the superhydrophobic surface could greatly reduce the solid-liquid interface nucleation rate, owing to the extremely low actual solid-liquid contact area caused by the composite micro-nanoscale hierarchical structures trapping air pockets, leading to the bulk nucleation dominating the entire ice nucleation at the lower temperatures. Furthermore, ice on the superhydrophobic surface possessed a lower macroscopical growth velocity as a result of the less ice nucleation rate and the insulating action of the trapped air pockets.
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10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b02946
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pubmed_43_20045
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Introduction: There is very limited kn3e safety of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with psoriasis who are being treated with biological agents. We present our experience in 369 patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis undergoing therapy with anti-IL agents who were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.Areas covered: None of the 369 patients referred to any serious adverse event related to vaccination against COVID-19, while about one-third reported mild adverse events similar to those seen in the general population that were resolved within 48 hours. No patient discontinued biological therapy to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.Expert opinion: Our observations provide evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can be considered safe in patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis who are receiving anti-IL therapy.
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10.1080/14712598.2021.1965985
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pubmed_1089_2707
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Vesicle-associated membrane-protein-associated protein B (VAPB) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident protein participating in ER function, vesicle trafficking, calcium homeostasis and lipid transport. Its N-terminal domain, named MSP, is cleaved and secreted, serving as an extracellular ligand. VAPB mutations are linked to autosomal-dominant motor neuron diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) type 8. An altered VAPB function is also suspected in sporadic ALS (SALS).
METHODS
The expression pattern of VAPB cleavage and secreted products in the peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of SALS patients and neurological controls was assessed. PBL from healthy controls were also analyzed. Assays were carried out through western blotting, using an anti-VAPB (N-terminal) antibody.
RESULTS
Two VAPB fragments containing the MSP domain (17 kDa and 14 kDa molecular sizes) were identified in PBL of SALS and controls, with no significant differences amongst groups. In CSF, only the 14 kDa VAPB MSP fragment was expressed and a corresponding VAPA fragment was not detected. The CSF VAPB fragment was absent in 58.7% of SALS patients, of whom 79.2% were bulbar onset (P = 0.001, bulbar versus spinal).
CONCLUSIONS
The absence of the CSF VAPB MSP fragment from most bulbar-onset SALS patients suggests a specific alteration of brain-derived VAPB cleavage and secretion in this group of patients, and hints at a role of VAPB in the pathophysiology of this motor neuron disease.
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10.1111/ene.12334
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pubmed_574_16853
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The beneficial effects of dobutamine on left ventricular systolic and diastolic phases have been described in patients with congestive heart failure. Its influence on left ventricular diastolic phase in patients with preserved systolic function, absence of dys- or akinetic areas, and left ventricular dilatation has not yet been adequately investigated. Thus a simultaneous echo-Doppler and hemodynamic study was performed in 15 patients with ischemic heart disease and preserved systolic function in order to assess the effect of dobutamine on left ventricular relaxation and filling phase. The infusion of dobutamine at a rate of 10 micrograms/kg/min induced a marked inotropic action, as shown by the significant increase in positive dP/dt (from 1392 +/- 224 to 2192 +/- 295 mmHg/sec, p < 0.001), dP/dt/P (from 32 +/- 8.1 to 50 +/- 17 sec-1; p < 0.0001), and in peak of systolic pressure (from 143 +/- 25 to 168 +/- 36 mmHg; p < 0.005). In addition, dobutamine reduced the end-systolic volume index (from 30 +/- 16 to 26 +/- 19 ml/m2; p < 0.05), the end-systolic stress (from 222.2 +/- 65.3 to 198.4 +/- 84 g/cm2; p < 0.006), and had favorable effects on relaxation and the early filling phase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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10.1007/BF00880155
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pubmed_405_25636
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All biological processes take place in highly crowded cellular environments. However, the effect that molecular crowding agents have on the folding and catalytic properties of RNA molecules remains largely unknown. Here, we have combined single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) and bulk cleavage assays to determine the effect of a molecular crowding agents on the folding and catalysis of a model RNA enzyme, the hairpin ribozyme. Our single-molecule data reveal that PEG favors the formation of the docked (active) structure by increasing the docking rate constant with increasing PEG concentrations. Furthermore, Mg(2+) ion-induced folding in the presence of PEG occurs at concentrations ∼7-fold lower than in the absence of PEG, near the physiological range (∼1 mM). Lastly, bulk cleavage assays in the presence of the crowding agent show that the ribozyme's activity increases while the heterogeneity decreases. Our data is consistent with the idea that molecular crowding plays an important role in the stabilization of ribozyme active conformations in vivo.
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10.1021/ja5073146
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pubmed_852_12608
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The purpose of this article is to report short-term outcomes and return to duty rates in a cohort of active duty U.S. military personnel who underwent repair of acute Achilles tendon ruptures using the Achillon mini-open technique. Between October 2009 and March 2012, 15 consecutive patients underwent mini-open repair of acute Achilles tendon ruptures using the Achillon device by a single surgeon. Minor and major complications were recorded, and American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) and pain visual analog scores were recorded at regular follow-up intervals. At mean latest follow-up of 16.7 months postoperatively, all 15 patients had returned to full active duty status without major complications. Specifically, no patient experienced major wound complication, infection, or rerupture. Mean AOFAS score in 9 of 15 patients was 94.1; mean pain visual analog score in 12 of 15 patients was 1.4. The Achillon mini-open technique can be used for treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures in appropriately selected high-demand patient populations with the expectation of minimal adverse outcomes.
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10.3113/jsoa.2013.0023
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pubmed_713_7216
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Therapy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) should be based on biomarker test results in the palliative setting. To this end, testing of all patients in stage IV and in the future also in the earlier stages will be important. In a conference with the patronage of the German Cancer Society, the question of "reflex testing", i.e. independently of tumor stage, was discussed but not deemed to be acceptable. The current report summarizes the results of the consensus conference and discusses possible paths to efficent biomarker testing in NSCLC.
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10.1055/a-1383-5231
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pubmed_54_2694
|
A model photosensitizer (D5) for application in dye-sensitized solar cells has been studied by a combination of XRD, theoretical calculations, and spectroscopic/chemometric methods. The conformational stability and flexibility of D5 and molecular interactions between adjacent molecules were characterized to obtain the driving forces that govern D5 uptake and grafting and to infer the most likely arrangement of the molecules on the surface of TiO2. A spectroscopic/chemometric approach was then used to yield information about the correlations between three variables that govern the uptake itself: D5 concentration, dispersant (chenodeoxycholic acid; CDCA) concentration, and contact time. The obtained regression model shows that large uptakes can be obtained at high D5 concentrations in the presence of CDCA with a long contact time, or in absence of CDCA if the contact time is short, which suggests how dye uptake and photovoltaic device preparation can be optimized.
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10.1002/cssc.201402194
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pubmed_1059_1661
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Embryonic differentiation is at present interpreted as the expression of variable gene activity. It is commonly thought that derepression of operator gene groups is the main cause of progress during development. However it is equally possible that gene repression plays a role in the appearance of new phenotypic characteristics. This paper illustrates such a possibility. It is known that in chickens embryonic haemoglobins exist which are replaced by other haemoglobins at about the sixth day of incubation. Analyses of globin chain composition of these haemoglobins by chromatography and urea/starch gel electrophoresis as well as TLC-fingerprinting and amino acid analyses of the individual globin chains showed that the haemoglobin switch was not associated with appearance of new globin chains but rather with disappearance of a number of embryonic chains. Moreover the relative proportion of the various chains changed at that time. From these findings we conclude that new haemoglobins arise from a recombination ('hybridization in vivo') of those globin chains which remain after the repression of a gene coding for embryonic chains.
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10.1016/0045-6039(76)90037-3
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pubmed_584_5973
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We explored the aftereffects of two premotor 1 Hz rTMS sessions on motor cortex excitability in healthy humans. In experiment 1, 11 healthy right-handed volunteers received 20-min submotor threshold 1 Hz rTMS trains over the left premotor cortex on 2 consecutive days. Left motor cortex excitability was determined at baseline, immediately after, 30, 60, 120 min, and 24 h after each rTMS session. We measured motor thresholds, amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials, silent periods, and paired-pulse excitability at interstimulus intervals (ISI) of 3-7, 10, and 15 ms. In experiment 2, 5 volunteers received two identical rTMS trains on Days 1 and 7. Measurements were carried out on Day 1 (first rTMS train), Day 2, and Day 7 (second rTMS train). In experiment 1 there was a selective increase of paired pulse facilitation at an ISI of 7 ms after rTMS lasting for less than 30 min on Day 1. This effect was also present after rTMS on Day 2. However, it persisted for at least 2 h. In experiment 2 the same extra facilitation was induced by rTMS on Days 1 and 7 but not on Day 2. It lasted for less than 30 min on both Day 1 and Day 7. We conclude that 1 Hz premotor rTMS leads to cumulative plastic changes of intrinsic motor cortex excitability when repeated within 24 h but not after 1 week, implying the formation of memory after the first rTMS train lasting more than a day but less than a week.
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10.1016/s1053-8119(03)00310-0
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pubmed_75_7691
|
Thirty patients with adenocarcinoma of the fallopian tube, treated between 1950 and 1981, were studied. Median age was 55 years, and mean parity was 1.3. Bleeding or discharge occurred as a presenting complaint in 47% of patients, abdominal distention or mass in 50%, and pain in 30%. Lesions were staged using a system analogous to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) classification for ovarian carcinoma. Nine patients had Stage I disease; 11, Stage II; 7, Stage III; and 3, Stage IV. Histologic differentiation was Grade 1 in 39% of the patients, Grade 2 in 18%, and Grade 3 in 43%. Primary surgical treatment consisted of total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy in 70% of the patients; 23% had more extensive surgery, whereas 13% had less extensive surgery. Three patients with Stage I tumors were treated with surgery alone, and the remainder received postoperative radiation, chemotherapy, or both. Survival was unrelated to grade, but highly dependent upon stage. Survival at 5 years was 56% for Stage I, 27% for Stage II, 14% for Stage III, and 0% for Stage IV. Four of five patients treated after surgery with a combination of cisplatin, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (PAC) survived at least 3 years. Patterns of initial treatment failure showed 56% with a component of pelvic failure, 50% with a component of upper abdominal failure, and 44% with extraperitoneal metastases as a component of failure. These results suggest the need for aggressive postoperative adjuvant therapy targeted at upper abdominal and distant sites for metastasis in all lesions beyond Stage I.
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10.1002/1097-0142(19861101)58:9<2070::aid-cncr2820580918>3.0.co;2-3
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pubmed_517_22041
|
BACKGROUND
Proinflammatory state has been implicated as a pathogenetic mechanism in the progression of intracranial large artery atherosclerosis (ILA). High levels of inflammatory biomarkers in healthy populations and in patients with acute stroke or acute coronary syndrome are known to be associated with subsequent stroke events. This study investigated the relationship between circulating biomarkers measured early after stroke onset and future ILA progression.
METHODS
In 48 patients with acute ischemic stroke, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-18, tumor necrosis factor-α, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 were measured within 48 hours after onset. Baseline severity and ILA progression were assessed by serial magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). The median follow-up period for MRA was 3.1 years. Hazard ratio (HR) was calculated using the Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for traditional risk factors, and accuracy of predicted ILA progression was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
RESULTS
ILA progression was observed in 6 of 48 patients (12.5%). After adjusting for age, sex, and presence of hypertension, baseline ILA severity score (HR 2.814; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.172-6.754) and IL-6 (HR 1.215; 95% CI 1.002-1.473) were significantly associated with ILA progression. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) for prediction of ILA progression by traditional risks, baseline ILA severity score and IL-6, was 0.647. When IL-6 was removed from this model, AUC remained at 0.631.
CONCLUSIONS
In addition to traditional risk factors and baseline radiologic findings, circulating levels of IL-6 measured soon after stroke onset are associated with future ILA progression.
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pubmed_517_22041
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pubmed_899_19000
|
Macrophages are present in nearly all tissues and are critical for development, homeostasis, and regeneration. Resident tissue macrophages of bone, termed osteal macrophages, are recently classified myeloid cells that are distinct from osteoclasts. Osteal macrophages are located immediately adjacent to osteoblasts, regulate bone formation, and play diverse roles in skeletal homeostasis. Genetic or pharmacological modulation of macrophages in vivo results in significant bone phenotypes, and these phenotypes depend on which macrophage subsets are altered. Macrophages are also key mediators of osseous wound healing and fracture repair, with distinct roles at various stages of the repair process. A central function of macrophages is their phagocytic ability. Each day, billions of cells die in the body and efferocytosis (phagocytosis of apoptotic cells) is a critical process in both clearing dead cells and recruitment of replacement progenitor cells to maintain homeostasis. Recent data suggest a role for efferocytosis in bone biology and these new mechanisms are outlined. Finally, although macrophages have an established role in primary tumors, emerging evidence suggests that macrophages in bone support cancers which preferentially metastasize to the skeleton. Collectively, this developing area of osteoimmunology raises new questions and promises to provide novel insights into pathophysiologic conditions as well as therapeutic and regenerative approaches vital for skeletal health.
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10.1002/jbmr.2735
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pubmed_630_4324
|
OBJECTIVE
In patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, seizures usually start in the hippocampus, and dentate granule cells are hyperexcitable. Somatostatin interneurons are a major subpopulation of inhibitory neurons in the dentate gyrus, and many are lost in patients and animal models. However, surviving somatostatin interneurons sprout axon collaterals and form new synapses, so the net effect on granule cell inhibition remains unclear.
METHODS
The present study uses optogenetics to activate hilar somatostatin interneurons and measure the inhibitory effect on dentate gyrus perforant path-evoked local field potential responses in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy.
RESULTS
In controls, light activation of hilar somatostatin interneurons inhibited evoked responses up to 40%. Epileptic pilocarpine-treated mice exhibited loss of hilar somatostatin interneurons and less light-induced inhibition of evoked responses.
SIGNIFICANCE
These findings suggest that severe epilepsy-related loss of hilar somatostatin interneurons can overwhelm the surviving interneurons' capacity to compensate by sprouting axon collaterals.
|
10.1111/epi.13376
|
pubmed_122_14299
|
Our patient presenting with symptoms of shortness of breath and fever, noncompliant with antiretroviral therapy was found to have a rare HIV-associated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that carries a dismal prognosis. Early recognition of this condition with prompt treatment may provide a marginal benefit to the patient's overall life expectancy.
|
10.1002/ccr3.1856
|
pubmed_1072_3603
|
The flux formulation of reaction rate theory is recast in terms of the expectation value of the reactive flux with an initial condition that corresponds to a non-equilibrium, factorized reactant density. In the common case of slow reactive processes, the non-equilibrium expression reaches the plateau regime only slightly slower than the equilibrium flux form. When the reactants are described by a single quantum state, as in the case of electron transfer reactions, the factorized reactant density describes the true initial condition of the reactive process. In such cases, the time integral of the non-equilibrium flux expression yields the reactant population as a function of time, allowing characterization of the dynamics in cases where there is no clear separation of time scales and thus a plateau regime cannot be identified. The non-equilibrium flux offers a unified approach to the kinetics of slow and fast chemical reactions and is ideally suited to mixed quantum-classical methods.
|
10.1063/1.4986587
|
pubmed_926_60
|
Background: Collaboration is a common occurrence among Vietnamese scientists; however, insights into Vietnamese scientific collaborations have been scarce. On the other hand, the application of social network analysis in studying science collaboration has gained much attention all over the world. The technique could be employed to explore Vietnam's scientific community. Methods: This paper employs network theory to explore characteristics of a network of 412 Vietnamese social scientists whose papers can be found indexed in the Scopus database. Two basic network measures, density and clustering coefficient, were taken, and the entire network was studied in comparison with two of its largest components. Results: The networks connections are very sparse, with a density of only 0.47%, while the clustering coefficient is very high (58.64%). This suggests an inefficient dissemination of information, knowledge, and expertise in the network. Secondly, the disparity in levels of connection among individuals indicates that the network would easily fall apart if a few highly-connected nodes are removed. Finally, the two largest components of the network were found to differ from the entire networks in terms of measures and were both led by the most productive and well-connected researchers. Conclusions: High clustering and low density seems to be tied to inefficient dissemination of expertise among Vietnamese social scientists, and consequently low scientific output. Also low in robustness, the network shows the potential of an intellectual elite composed of well-connected, productive, and socially significant individuals.
|
10.12688/f1000research.12404.1
|
pubmed_575_23206
|
BACKGROUND AND AIM
The rising aging index of many populations necessitates the continuous evolution of geriatric assessment methods, especially the ones used to identify frailty and the risk of frailty. An appropriately early diagnosis of adverse changes in skeletal muscles can reduce the risk of functional limitations in elderly persons. The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between the appendicular skeletal muscle mass and quality, estimated by the bioelectrical impedance analysis method, and the risk of prevalence of the pre-frailty state in elderly persons.
METHODS
One-thousand-and-fifteen subjectively healthy persons aged 60-87 years were tested. Anthropometric measurements and physical fitness and activity measurements were carried out and the frailty phenotype was evaluated. Appendicular skeletal muscle mass was estimated using the bioelectrical impedance analysis method. Muscle quality was assessed through an index correcting strength relative to muscle mass and through the impedance phase angle. The correlation between the muscle mass and quality estimating parameters and the probability of identifying pre-frailty was checked using multiple logistic regression.
RESULTS
The prevalence of pre-frailty was 38%. The pre-frail persons were found to have a significantly lower muscle mass and quality than the non-frail persons, with the difference in the case of the muscle quality index nearly twice larger than for the muscle mass index. A significant logit model was obtained for pre-frailty prevalence, which was strongly dependent on the appendicular skeletal muscle mass (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 0.43, 95% CI 0.36-0.52, p < 0.001) and functional quality (adjusted OR: 0.26, 95% CI 0.18-0.38, p < 0.001) and less on age (adjusted OR: 1.10, 95% CI 1.07-1.13, p < 0.001).
CONCLUSION
The strong correlation between the frailty phenotype and appendicular skeletal muscle mass and functional quality suggests that the two variables should be included in routine geriatric assessment with regard to frailty.
|
10.1007/s40520-021-01879-y
|
pubmed_147_5945
|
BACKGROUND
Angiopoietin like-2 (angptl2), a proinflammatory protein, is overexpressed in endothelial cells (ECs) from patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Whether angptl2 contributes to atherogenesis is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that angptl2 promotes inflammation and leukocyte adhesion onto ECs, thereby accelerating atherogenesis in preatherosclerotic dyslipidemic mice.
METHODS AND RESULTS
In ECs freshly isolated from the aorta, basal expression of TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA was higher in 3-month-old severely dyslipidemic mice (LDLr(-/-); hApoB100(+/+) [ATX]) than in control healthy wild-type (WT) mice (P<0.05) and was increased in both groups by exogenous angptl2 (100 nmol/L). Angptl2 stimulated the adhesion of leukocytes ex vivo on the native aortic endothelium of ATX, but not WT mice, in association with higher expression of ICAM-1 and P-selectin in ECs (P<0.05). Antibodies against these endothelial adhesion molecules prevented leukocyte adhesion. Intravenous administration of angptl2 for 1 month in preatherosclerotic 3-month-old ATX mice increased (P<0.05) total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels, strongly induced (P<0.05) the expression of endothelial proinflammatory cytokines and adhesion molecules while accelerating atherosclerotic lesion formation by 10-fold (P<0.05). Plasma and aortic tissue levels of angptl2 increased (P<0.05) with age and were higher in 6- and 12-month-old ATX mice than in age-matched WT mice. Angptl2 accumulated to high levels in the atherosclerotic lesions (P<0.05). Finally, angptl2 was greatly expressed (P<0.05) in ECs cultured from CAD patients, and circulating angptl2 levels were 6-fold higher in CAD patients compared with age-matched healthy volunteers.
CONCLUSIONS
Angptl2 contributes to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
|
10.1161/JAHA.113.000201
|
pubmed_353_14591
|
PURPOSE
Previous research has indicated that the manifestation of specific language impairment (SLI) varies according to factors such as language, age, and task. This study examined the effect of task demands on language production in children with SLI cross-linguistically.
METHOD
Icelandic- and English-speaking school-age children with SLI and normal language (NL) peers (n = 42) were administered measures of verbal working memory. Spontaneous language samples were collected in contexts that vary in task demands: conversation, narration, and expository discourse. The effect of the context-related task demands on the accuracy of grammatical inflections was examined.
RESULTS
Children with SLI in both language groups scored significantly lower than their NL peers in verbal working memory. Nonword repetition scores correlated with morphological accuracy. In both languages, mean length of utterance (MLU) varied systematically across sampling contexts. Context exerted a significant effect on the accuracy of grammatical inflection in English only. Error rates were higher overall in English than in Icelandic, but whether the difference was significant depended on the sampling context. Errors in Icelandic involved verb and noun phrase inflection to a similar extent.
CONCLUSIONS
The production of grammatical morphology appears to be more taxing for children with SLI who speak English than for those who speak Icelandic. Thus, whereas children with SLI in both language groups evidence deficits in language processing, cross-linguistic differences are seen in which linguistic structures are vulnerable when processing load is increased. Future research should carefully consider the effect of context on children's language performance.
|
10.1044/1092-4388(2008/068)
|
pubmed_496_11338
|
In a study of long-term (mean=32.5 months) analytic group psychotherapy we explored the relationships among six predictors shown to influence outcome in short-term group studies and five outcome variables (Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF], Global Symptom Index [GSI], Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex [IIP-C], Global Improvement, and Chief Complaints), assessed after termination of therapy. In this study, we wanted to test whether the same variables also predicted patients' status at follow-up, 1 year after termination. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses were used. Initial status and treatment duration up to 2.5 years turned out to be strong positive predictors of status at both time points. Contrary to findings from many short-term studies, presence of personality disorder, high initial severity, chronicity, and less optimistic expectations had no predictive power at either time. Higher age predicted a less favourable status at follow-up in secondary exploratory analyses. The findings suggest that different patients may benefit from long-term versus short-term group psychotherapy. More studies should examine patient aptitude and the significance of the time factor (Aptitude-Treatment Interaction [ATI-effects]).
|
10.1002/jclp.20207
|
pubmed_750_1861
|
Radiotherapy (RT), along with surgery and chemotherapy, is a major modality of cancer therapy. Nevertheless, insufficient deposition of radiation energy in tumors and hypoxia-associated radioresistance remain the greatest challenges in RT. Here, we propose porous platinum nanoparticles as a new nanomedicine platform for solving these two problems at the same time using a single agent. Because of the combined advantages of a high-Z element and oxygen generation capability, porous platinum nanoparticles can significantly increase radiation-induced DNA damage, ROS stress, and cell cycle arrest by effectively depositing X-ray radiation energy within the cancer cells. Further, porous platinum nanoparticles increase tumor oxygenation by converting endogenic H2O2 to O2, thus greatly enhancing RT with no apparent in vivo toxicity to animals. This study presents a new nanomedicine strategy based on the use of porous high-Z metal nanoparticles with oxygen generation function for the synergistic enhancement of RT in cancer treatment.
|
10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.01.004
|
pubmed_847_24509
|
Biosilica formation in diatoms is a membrane-confined process that occurs in so-called silica deposition vesicles (SDVs). As SDVs have as yet not been successfully isolated, the impact of the SDV membrane on silica morphogenesis is not well understood. However, recently the first SDV transmembrane protein, silicanin-1 (Sin1) has been identified that appears to be involved in biosilica formation. In this study, we recombinantly expressed and isolated full-length Sin1 from E. coli and investigated its reconstitution behavior in artificial membranes. A reconstitution efficiency in vesicles of up to 80% was achieved by a co-micellization method. By using a chymotrypsin digest, the orientation of Sin1 in unilamellar vesicles was analyzed indicating a positioning of the large N-terminal domain to the outside of the vesicles. These proteoliposomes were capable of precipitating silica in the presence of long-chain polyamines. Supported lipid bilayers were produced by proteoliposome spreading on lipid monolayers to form continuous lipid bilayers with Sin1 confined to the membrane. Successful Sin1 reconstitution into these planar membranes was shown by means of immunostaining with purified primary anti-Sin1 and secondary fluorescent antibodies. The established planar model membrane system, amenable for surface sensitive and microscopy techniques, will pave the way to investigate SDV-membrane interactions with other SDV associated biomolecules and its role in silica biogenesis.
|
10.1016/j.bbamem.2022.183921
|
pubmed_160_11121
|
The adhesion of tumor cells to the endothelium is a key step in haematogenic metastasis. Because alkyllysophospholipids decrease tumor metastasis, we investigated the effect of 1-O-octadecyl-2-O-methyl-glycerophosphocholine (ET18-OCH3) on the adhesion of two highly metastatic ras-transformed 10T1/2 cell lines, CIRAS-2 and CIRAS-3, to confluent endothelial cells. The order of adhesion to the endothelial cells was CIRAS-2 > 10T1/2 > CIRAS-3. RGD peptides were unable to inhibit the binding of the cells suggesting that adhesion was not mediated by fibronectin or vitronectin. Treatment of the cell lines with 20 mu M ET18-OCH3 for 24 h decreased the adhesion of CIRAS-2, CIRAS-3 and 10T1/2 to the endothelial cells by 50, 43 and 36% respectively. Thus interference in the adhesion of tumor cells to the endothelium could contribute to decreased metastasis.
|
10.3892/or.2.4.647
|
pubmed_201_4898
|
PURPOSE
Liquids have higher ingestion and gastric-emptying rates, resulting in rapid glycemic response. They are also less satiating than solid foods. This study examined if the addition of plant proteins alter postprandial glucose, insulin, triglycerides, glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), glycogen-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and appetitive responses to a sugar-sweetened beverage.
METHODS
This was a randomized, crossover acute feeding study consisting of four treatments: chocolate beverage alone (50 g carbohydrate), or added with 24 g oat, pea or rice proteins. Twenty Chinese males (mean ± SD age 26 ± 5 years; body mass index 21.5 ± 1.7 kg/m2) ingested the test drink after an overnight fast. Venous blood samples and subjective appetite ratings were collected before test beverage and at fixed intervals for 180 min. Blood biochemical data and appetite ratings were compared using repeated-measures ANOVA.
RESULTS
Significant interaction effects were found in postprandial glucose excursions (time × protein effects, p = 0.003). Glucose iAUC was lower in pea and rice proteins, although not significantly (p > 0.385). Insulin iAUC was significantly higher in the oat (p = 0.035) and pea (p = 0.036) protein beverages. GIP and GLP-1 release in a sub-sample (n = 10) followed a comparable order as insulin release (p = 0.397 and 0.454, respectively). Significant interaction effects were found in fullness ratings (p = 0.024), and a trend of greater suppression of hunger and desire-to-eat was also documented (p = 0.088 and 0.080, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS
Plant proteins altered the glycemic and appetitive responses of Asian males to a sugar-sweetened beverage. Food-based interventions are useful in promoting glycemic control. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT02933424.
|
10.1007/s00394-017-1547-3
|
pubmed_954_5274
|
Aerobic fitness (AF) and self-reported physical activity (srPA) do not represent the same construct. However, many exercise and brain aging studies interchangeably use AF and srPA measures, which may be problematic with regards to how these metrics are associated with brain outcomes, such as morphology. If AF and PA measures captured the same phenomena, regional brain volumes associated with these measures should directly overlap. This study employed the general linear model to examine the differential association between objectively-measured AF (treadmill assessment) and srPA (questionnaire) with gray matter density (GMd) in 29 cognitively unimpaired community-dwelling older adults using voxel based morphometry. The results show significant regional variance in terms of GMd when comparing AF and srPA as predictors. Higher AF was associated with greater GMd in the cerebellum only, while srPA displayed positive associations with GMd in occipito-temporal, left perisylvian, and frontal regions after correcting for age. Importantly, only AF level, and not srPA, modified the relationship between age and GMd, such that higher levels of AF were associated with increased GMd in older age, while decreased GMd was seen in those with lower AF as a function of age. These results support existing literature suggesting that both AF and PA exert beneficial effects on GMd, but only AF served as a buffer against age-related GMd loss. Furthermore, these results highlight the need for use of objective PA measurement and comparability of tools across studies, since results vary dependent upon the measures used and whether these are objective or subjective in nature.
|
10.3389/fnagi.2015.00005
|
pubmed_769_5333
|
BACKGROUND
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored high-density lipoprotein binding protein 1 (GPIHBP1) plays a crucial role in lipolytic processing. Previous studies have shown that GPIHBP1 mutations cause severe hypertriglyceridemia and that serum GPIHBP1 levels are marginally higher in patients with coronary heart disease; however, the role of GPIHBP1 in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains unknown.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the association between circulating GPIHBP1 levels and the prevalence of microvascular complications in T2DM.
METHODS
A total of 237 subjects with T2DM and 235 non-diabetic control subjects were enrolled in this study. Their serum GPIHBP1 levels were evaluated using ELISA assays.
RESULTS
Circulating GPIHBP1 levels were higher in patients with T2DM (952.7 pg/mL [761.3-1234.6], p < 0.0001) than in non-diabetic subjects (700.6 [570.8-829.6]), but did not differ in T2DM patients with or without hypertriglyceridemia. Serum GPIHBP1 levels were significantly higher in patients with T2DM with diabetic retinopathy (DR), diabetic nephropathy (DN), and microvascular complications than in those without these complications. Multivariable logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses revealed that the presence of microvascular complications, but not macrovascular complications, was independently associated with serum GPIHBP1 levels, which could predict the presence of diabetic microvascular complications.
CONCLUSIONS
Elevated GPIHBP1 levels are associated with microvascular complications in T2DM and may help to predict their progression.
|
10.1016/j.jacl.2022.01.006
|
pubmed_983_5537
|
PURPOSE
This study aimed to investigate whether push-in and pull-out tests measure mechanical properties of the bone-implant interface differently, and which test is more sensitive to changes over the healing period.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two identical self-threading dental implants (3.3×8.5mm) were placed in medial surface of the proximal condyles of left and right tibias of 20 rabbits (40 implants total). Five rabbits each were sacrificed after 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks of healing. Push-in test was performed on one side's tibia implant and pull-out on the other side's implant, at a rate of 6mm/min. Primary and secondary implant stabilities and tibia weight were measured on all implants.
RESULTS
The push-in test generated significantly higher failure load (p=.0001; 530N vs 279N), lower displacement at failure (p=.0003; 0.436mm vs 0.680mm), and higher interface stiffness (p<.0001; 1,641N/mm vs 619N/mm) than pull-out test. Failure load, stiffness, and secondary implant stability were significantly higher for longer compared with shorter healing periods, while displacement, tibia weight, and primary stability were not. Failure load and stiffness differed significantly for four healing times for the push-in but not for the pull-out test. Failure load was significantly correlated with secondary implant stability for both push-in (r=0.66) and pull-out (r=0.48) tests, but stiffness was significantly correlated with secondary stability only for the push-in test (r=0.72; pull-out test r=0.40).
CONCLUSION
The push-in test appeared more sensitive than pull-out to changes in mechanical properties at bone-implant interfaces during healing in rabbit tibia model.
|
10.1111/j.1708-8208.2011.00357.x
|
pubmed_182_10154
|
In this study the effects of various anions (SO2-₄, ClO-₄ and PO3-₄) were investigated on the hydrothermal treatment of WO₃ from Na₂WO₄ and HCl at 180 and 200 °C. The products were analyzed by XRD and SEM. With the usage of SO2-₄ the obtained product was hexagonal (h-) WO₃ in the form of nanorods at both temperatures. Applying ClO-₄ resulted in a mixture of WO₃·0.33H₂O and small amount of m-WO₃ at 180 °C and pure WO₃·0.33H₂O at 200 °C. The morphology was consisted of cuboid shapes arranged into spherical structures at 180 °C and longitudinal ones at 200 °C. By the application of PO3-₄ no product formed at either temperature. Using the combination of SO2-₄, and ClO-₄ the product was h-WO₃ at both 180 and 200 °C with rod-like crystals; thus, the effect of ClO-₄ was overdominated by the SO2-₄ions. Utilization of PO3-₄ together with SO2-₄, and/or ClO-₄ resulted again in no product, meaning that adding PO3-₄ to the reaction mixture completely blocks the hydrothermal formation of solid products by forming water soluble phosphotungstic acids.
|
10.1166/jnn.2019.15790
|
pubmed_370_272
|
A simple radioenzymatic method for the determination of DOPA is described. The method is based on the conversion of DOPA to 3-O-[methyl-3H]DOPA by catechol-O-methyltransferase in the presence of S-adenosyl-[methyl-3H]methionine and purification of the labelled product by Sephadex G10 and Dowex 50 W x 4 ion exchange resin. The method has been applied to the assay of endogenous DOPA in different brain area and to measuring DOPA accumulation after inhibition of aromatic amino acid DOPA decarboxylase.
|
10.1111/j.1471-4159.1981.tb02406.x
|
pubmed_34_4292
|
BACKGROUND
Three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) appears to show incremental benefit over two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE), but it's uptake has been slow. We tested attendees before and after an intensive interactive training course to identify its efficacy.
METHODS
Attendees (n = 35, 23 cardiologists, 12 sonographers) were shown how to use 3DE review software and asked to identify the pathology of five patients (wall motion abnormality, peri-prosthetic mitral regurgitation, subaortic membrane, small ventricular septal defect, submitral stenosis) on 2D and 3D images. In the following one and a half-day interactive teaching course, brief presentations on application of 3DE for assessment of wall motion, valve and congenital abnormalities were followed by review of 3D datasets, during which the attendees made their own interpretations before being shown the optimal viewing strategy. Test cases were not discussed and the test was repeated at the end of the course.
RESULTS
Most attendees (57%) had access but with little or no use of a 3DE system. Three-dimensional echocardiography had no incremental value before training. After training, overall correct responses significantly improved compared with baseline interpretation, although improvement was not the same for all diagnoses. All groups (cardiologists vs. sonographers, inexperienced vs. moderately experienced reviewers) improved similarly.
CONCLUSIONS
Incorporation of 3DE into standard practice may be limited by inexperience. An interactive teaching course with rehearsal and direct mentoring appears to overcome this limitation and may improve the uptake of this technique.
|
10.1016/j.euje.2007.06.011
|
pubmed_922_19945
|
At the core of additive manufacturing (3D printing) is the ability to rapidly print with multiple materials for arbitrary distribution with high resolution, which can remove challenges and limits of traditional assembly and enable us to make increasingly complex objects, especially exciting meta-materials. Here we demonstrate a simple and effective strategy to achieve nano-resolution printing of multiple materials for arbitrary distribution via layer-by-layer deposition on a special deposition surface. The established physical model reveals that complex distribution on a section can be achieved by vertical deformation of simple lamination of multiple materials. The deformation is controlled by a special surface of the mold and a contour-by-contour (instead of point-by-point) printing mode is revealed in the actual process. A large-scale concentric ring array with a minimum feature size below 50 nm is printed within less than two hours, verifying the capacity of high-throughput, high-resolution and rapidity of printing. The proposed printing method opens the way towards the programming of internal compositions of object (such as functional microdevices with multiple materials).
|
10.3390/nano9081108
|
pubmed_629_6525
|
OBJECTIVE
To determine the intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) discontinuation rate and its causes and related factors among women attending UNRWA health centres in Jordan.
METHODS
The study cohort comprised 371 women who had an IUD inserted during 1997 and who were interviewed during their visits to the health centres in the period January-March 2003. The main outcome measure was IUD discontinuation.
RESULTS
The incidence of IUD discontinuation in the first year following insertion was 17.5%. Approximately 32% of the study sample continued using their devices after 5 years. The average duration of IUD use was 36 months. Of the 371 women, 39.6% discontinued IUD use because of a desire to conceive, 18.6% because of side effects, 4.9% because they were sexually inactive and 1.6% because of opposition from the woman's family. The most common side effects reported as reasons for discontinuation were bleeding, infection and pain. Discontinuation was inversely related to current age, marital age and number of living children. Outside camp residents, previous contraceptive users and women with obstetric complications were significantly less likely to discontinue IUD use.
CONCLUSIONS
The crude cumulative rate of IUD discontinuation was 17.5% during the first year, suggesting a need to tackle the problem of discontinuation through effective educational strategies on the process of fertility and contraception. The most common reason for voluntary IUD removal was the women's desire to conceive. This suggests that improved counselling and good selection of candidates before IUD insertion is required.
|
10.1783/147118906777888279
|
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