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7,106 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: magnetic resonance myelography ( mrm ) has been developed to evaluate the spinal subarachnoid space non - invasively .
in addition , advantages of mrm as compared to conventional or computed tomography ( ct ) myelography are that it does not involve the use of intrathecal contrast or radiation.[14 ] on the heavily t2-weighted sequence used in this technique , cerebro - spinal fluid ( csf ) in the subarachnoid space has hyperintense signal while normal or abnormal soft tissue structures are seen as filling defects or extrinsic compressions .
images obtained with single - slice thick - slab techniques require very short time as compared to multi - slice techniques .
in addition , single - slice technique of mrm provides excellent suppression of background signals ( from fat or paravertebral veins ) and has significantly reduced csf flow artifacts.[357 ] mrm has been previously used to assess spinal stenosis and nerve root compression with some benefits.[810 ] the aim of this study is to evaluate the advantages of routine use of 2-d single thick - slice mrm in providing additional information in spinal and extra - spinal regions .
the study included all patients who were referred for mr imaging irrespective of age , sex or clinical presentation .
the study group included 143 cases that had mild to severe degenerative disease , 13 cases of congenital variants or abnormalities , 17 cases of tuberculous spondylitis , 12 cases of primary or secondary spinal tumors and 35 cases of spinal trauma .
the mr imaging examinations were performed by using an 18 channel , 1.5-t avanto system ( siemens , erlangen , germany ) .
single thick - slice mrm projection images were obtained in mid - sagittal and coronal planes in addition to the routine mr sequences .
t2 half - fourier acquisition single - shot turbo spin - echo ( haste ) sequence was used with extremely long echo time ( te ) of 1200 ms and repetition time ( tr ) of 8000 ms .
other sequence parameters were echo train length = 369 , slice thickness = 50 mm , field of... | objective : to validate the additional merits of two - dimensional ( 2d ) single thick - slice magnetic resonance myelography ( mrm ) in spinal imaging.materials and methods:2d single thick - slice mrm was performed using t2 half - fourier acquisition single - shot turbo spin - echo ( haste ) sequence in addition to routine magnetic resonance ( mr ) sequences for spine in 220 patients .
the images were evaluated for additional diagnostic information in spinal and extra - spinal regions .
a three - point grading system was adopted depending upon the utility of mrm in contributing to the detection of spinal or extra - spinal findings .
grade 1 represented no contribution of mrm while grade 3 would indicate that it was essential to detection of findings.results:utility of mrm in spine was categorized as grade 3 in 10.9% cases ( 24/220 ) , grade 2 in 21.8% ( 48/220 ) cases and grade 1 in 67.3% cases ( 148/220 ) .
thus , the overall additional merit of mrm in spine was seen in 32.7% ( 72/220 ) of cases .
besides in 14.1% cases ( 31/220 ) extra - spinal pathologies were identified.conclusion:2d single thick - slice mrm could have additional merits in spinal imaging when used as an adjunct to routine mr sequences . |
7,107 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: enzymes of the eukaryotic protein kinase superfamily phosphorylate serine , threonine or tyrosine residues in proteins .
protein kinases and their substrates form complex networks that regulate essentially every eukaryotic cellular process ( 1 )
. defects in phosphorylation networks result in numerous disease states , making protein kinases important pharmacological targets . to ensure signalling fidelity , protein kinases act on discrete sets of substrates .
two major factors are responsible for substrate recognition ( 2 ) : substrate recruitment , encompassing any process that promotes kinase - substrate encounters ; and peptide specificity , the preference for particular residues surrounding the phosphorylation site .
we have previously developed a method , named predikin , to predict the peptide specificity of protein serine
predikin identifies key conserved substrate - determining residues ( sdrs ) in the protein kinase substrate - binding pocket .
the region of the substrate contacted by these residues corresponds to the heptapeptide sequence comprised of positions 3 to + 3 relative to the phosphorylated residue , so the physicochemical properties of sdrs can be used to predict which heptapeptides are the best substrates for a particular protein kinase .
we have recently completely revised and expanded the predikin codebase and provided access to predikin via a new webserver .
the predikin webserver is built from three components : ( i ) predikin.pm , a perl module that provides data and methods for the analysis of protein kinase and substrate sequences ; ( ii ) predikindb , a database of protein kinases and their substrates and ( iii ) the website user interface . in this article
, we provide a brief description of the methods , capabilities and usage of the predikin webserver .
a perl module , predikin.pm , provides data and methods for the analysis of both protein kinase and substrate sequences .
the protein kinase is analysed using the following methods : ( i ) assignment of protein kinase type (... | the predikin webserver allows users to predict substrates of protein kinases .
the predikin system is built from three components : a database of protein kinase substrates that links phosphorylation sites with specific protein kinase sequences ; a perl module to analyse query protein kinases and a web interface through which users can submit protein kinases for analysis .
the predikin perl module provides methods to ( i ) locate protein kinase catalytic domains in a sequence , ( ii ) classify them by type or family , ( iii ) identify substrate - determining residues , ( iv ) generate weighted scoring matrices using three different methods , ( v ) extract putative phosphorylation sites in query substrate sequences and ( vi ) score phosphorylation sites for a given kinase , using optional filters .
the web interface provides user - friendly access to each of these functions and allows users to obtain rapidly a set of predictions that they can export for further analysis .
the server is available at http://predikin.biosci.uq.edu.au . |
7,108 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study:
ret ( rearranged during transfection ) encodes a membrane receptor tyrosine kinase ( rtk ) composed of four extracellular cadherin - like motifs and a cysteine - rich region , a transmembrane portion , and an intracellular domain with tyrosine kinase activity . the ret signaling pathways are outlined in ( figure 1 ) .
ret signals through a ligand / coreceptor / ret multiprotein complex instead of the usual receptor / ligand binding .
to date , several ligands of the glial - derived neurotrophic factor ( gdnf ) family , which include gdnf , artemin , neurturin , and persephin and a family of gpi - linked ret coreceptors ( gfr1 - 4 ) , have been identified .
the formation of ligand / coreceptor and ret complexes results in ret dimerization and triggers autophosphorylation at intracellular tyrosine residues . phosphorylated tyrosine 687 ( y687 ) , serine 696 ( s696 ) , y752 , y791 , y806 , y809 , y826 , y864 , y900 , y905 , y928 , y952 , y981 , y1015 , y1029 , y1062 , y1090 , and y1096 constitute docking sites for numerous intracellular adaptor proteins such as rac1-guanine exchange factor ( gef ) , growth factor receptor - bound ( grb ) docking proteins grb7/10 , chicken rous sarcoma virus oncogene ( c - src ) , focal adhesion kinase ( fak ) , phospholipase c- ( plc- ) and src homologue collagen ( shc ) , insulin receptor substrate 1/2 ( irs1/2 ) , fibroblast growth factor substrate 2 ( frs2 ) , or downstream of kinase 1/4/5 ( dok1/4/5 ) ( reviewed by de groot et al . ) .
phosphorylation of intracellular target proteins activates several downstream pathways which include mitogen - activated protein kinase cascade : rat sarcoma oncogene / rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma / extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 ( ras / raf / erk1/2 ) , the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase / protein kinase b pathway ( pi3k / akt ) [ 7 , 8 ] , the c - jun n - terminal kinase pathway ( jnk ) , p38 , enigma extracellular regulated kinase 5 ( erk5 ) , the camp - responsive element - binding protein , and the signal transducer and... | the significance of ret in thyroid cancer comes from solid evidence that , when inherited , an ret activating mutation primes c - cells to transform into medullary carcinomas .
moreover , environmental exposure to radiation also induces rearranged transforming ret
isoforms that are found in papillary thyroid cancer . the ret gene codes for a tyrosine kinase receptor that targets a diverse set of intracellular signaling pathways .
the nature of ret point mutations predicts differences in the mechanisms by which the receptor becomes activated and correlates with different forms of clinical presentation , age of onset , and biological aggressiveness .
a number of ret - targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitors ( tkis ) are currently undergoing clinical trials to evaluate their effectiveness in the treatment of thyroid cancer , and it is conceivable that the ret genotype may also influence response to these compounds . the question that now emerges is whether , in the future , the rational for treatment of refractory thyroid cancer will be based on the management of an abnormal ret signal . in this paper
we address the ret - targeting tkis and review studies about the signaling properties of distinct ret mutants as a means to predict response and design combinatorial therapies for the soon to be available tkis . |
7,109 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: bile duct cancer has been associated with a poor prognosis ; node metastasis is a particularly important poor prognostic factor [ 16 ] . despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cholangiocarcinoma , such as endoscopic biliary drainage , surgical procedures , and chemotherapy , long - term outcomes
several reports of recurrence in long - term survivors have also been published [ 79 ] .
recurrence usually occurs at the margin of the bile duct , in the peritoneum , or in the liver [ 1 , 2 ] .
this report describes a patient with hilar cholangiocarcinoma who underwent resection of 11th rib metastasis 10 years after curative resection of the primary tumor .
it mainly affected the right hepatic duct , but also extended to the left hepatic duct and proximal common bile duct .
percutaneous transhepatic cholangio drainage tubes were inserted into the anterior brunch and posterior brunch approached from the 7th intercostal space and into the posterior brunch approached from the 9th intercostal space .
according to the sixth edition of the uicc tnm classification , the tumor was classified as pt3 pn1 pm0 pstage iii .
in addition , according to the fifth edition of the general rules for biliary tract cancer by the japanese society of biliary surgery , the tumor was described as bcrism , nodular - infiltrating type , 2.2 cm , moderate- to well - differentiated adenocarcinoma ( tub2 > tub1 ) , pat , sci , infb , ly1 , v0 , pn0 , hinf1 , ginf0 , panc0 , du0 , hm1 , dm1 , em1 , pv0 , a0 , n2 ( 12c 1/1 , 12p 1/8 ) , pt4 pn2 m0 fstage ivb , final curability b. four months after the initial operation , the patient underwent eight courses of hepatic arterial injection of fluorouracil ( 5fu ) ( 1,500 mg ) every week as adjuvant chemotherapy .
thereafter , three courses of systemic adjuvant chemotherapy with methotrexate ( 50 mg ) , cisplatin ( 20 mg ) , and 5fu ( 750 mg ) on days 1 , 8 , and 15 were administered every 6 months , along with radiation therapy to the hilar region at a dose of 56 gy .
after these... | abstract
a 61-year - old female underwent right hemihepatectomy and caudate lobectomy for hilar cholangiocarcinoma in 1999 .
ten years later , increasing serum carbohydrate 19 - 9 was detected by routine follow - up .
subsequent positron emission tomography revealed an asymptomatic lesion in the right 11th rib . as the mass steadily grew in size , the lesion was resected en bloc with the affected rib and muscle .
the histopathological findings closely resembled those of the primary cholangiocarcinoma .
thus , the tumor was diagnosed as a metastatic recurrence 10 years after resection of the primary tumor .
there have been a few reports of cholangiocarcinoma recurrence in long - term survivors at the surgical margins , peritoneum , or transhepatic drainage route . however , there are no reports of solitary extra - abdominal recurrence .
this case highlights the need for careful follow - up of patients with cholangiocarcinoma and nodal metastasis , even in the absence of recurrence for > 5 years after curative resection . |
7,110 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | silica is a toxicant that can stimulate cells to produce various cellular products such as free radicals , cytokines , and growth factors .
silica and its induced substances may induce apoptosis to regulate the evolution of silica - induced inflammation and fibrosis . to examine this hypothesis ,
groups of wistar male rats were intratracheally instilled with different doses of min - u - sil 5 silica ( silica , berkeley springs , wv ) .
ten days after the instillation , we obtained cells by bronchoalveolar lavage and placed them on slides by cytospin preparation .
the slides were stained with diff - quik ( lab aids , sydney , nsw , australia ) and examined under oil immersion .
a substantial number of cells with apoptotic features were identified in all silica - instilled rats and the apoptosis was confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis .
the number of apoptotic cells was clearly related to silica dosage .
engulfment of apoptotic cells by macrophages was also noted .
neutrophil influx in silica - instilled rats could be saturated with the increase of silica dosage and the number of macrophages in different dose groups changed in parallel with the proportion of apoptotic cells .
fifty - six days after instillation , morphologically apoptotic cells could be identified in granulomatous cells of lung tissue from silica - instilled rats .
we conclude that intratracheal instillation of silica could induce apoptosis in both alveolar and granulomatous cells , and the apoptotic change and subsequent engulfment by macrophages might play a role in the evolution of silica - induced effects.imagesfigure 1.figure 3.figure 4.figure 5.figure 7.figure 8 . |
7,111 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the estimated prevalence has been reported from 16.8% to 58%.15 frequent drooling may cause skin maceration and infection , body fluid loss , and recurrent pneumonia.6,7 at school and at home , children with salivary secretions may cause damage to books , teaching materials and furniture , and it even interferes with social relationships.6,8,9 van der burg et al8,10 reported that children with cp that drool are often avoided by other children , and familiar and unfamiliar adults ( including their parents ) .
hockstein et al9 reported that drooling in children with cp could interfere with their education and increase their dependent level of care .
such studies suggest that drooling might be associated with a reduced quality of life among children with cp .
previous studies have shown that there are many factors that interfere with the health - related quality of life ( hrqol ) in children with cp including : motor , cognitive , language , and social impairment.1114 although the prevalence of drooling is high among children with cp , there are few articles regarding its relationship to the hrqol in these children .
most prior studies8,10,15 have used modified questionnaires or qualitative methods to evaluate the relationship between drooling and hrqol . in this study , standardized measurement of the hrqol in children with cp , with and without drooling , was investigated .
in addition , the relationship between drooling and hrqol was evaluated , as well as the factors that predict the variability of hrqol in these children .
children with cp that attended one medical center hospital and two early intervention institutions at daytime for an early intervention and habilitation program in taiwan were enrolled . children with cp , aged 2 to 6 years , without drooling ( with a drooling ranking score of 2 according to the drooling rating scale developed by thomas - stonell and greenberg16 ) , were the control group . children with cp , aged 2 to 6 years , with drooling ( a drooling ranking score > 2 ) , were the... | objectiveto investigate the association between drooling in children with cerebral palsy ( cp ) and their health - related quality of life ( hrqol ) , as well as the possible variables that predict their hrqol.methoda cross - sectional design was used for this study .
children with cp , without other identified disease , aged 2 to 6 years , who drool ( n = 33 ) or did not drool ( n = 14 ) , were included .
the dependent variables were the physical health summary scores and the psychosocial health summary scores of the pediatric quality of life inventory version 4.0 . the t test , pearson product moment correlation , mann
whitney u test and stepwise regression analysis were used for statistical analysis.resultsthe physical health and psychosocial health summary scores of the children that drooled ( 16.29 15.97 and 42.92 17.57 , respectively ) were lower than for the children that did not drool ( 31.97 22.22 and 57.09 12.21 , respectively ; p < 0.01 ) .
the drooling ranking score was negatively correlated with the physical health summary score ( r = 0.355 ; p < 0.05 ) and the psychosocial health summary score ( r = 0.381 ; p < 0.01 ) .
the stepwise regression showed that gross motor development and the drooling ranking score predicted 56.6% of the variability of the physical health summary score ( r2 = 0.566 ; p < 0.01 ) .
the language development score predicted 25.6% of the variability of the psychosocial health summary score ( r2 = 0.256 ; p < 0.01).conclusiondrooling was associated with a lower hrqol .
prediction of the physical health summary score was more closely associated with gross motor development and the drooling ranking scores .
prediction of the psychosocial health summary score was more closely associated with the language development of children with cp aged 2 to 6 years . |
7,112 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this study was conducted under the ethical guidelines for medical and health research involving human subjects by the health , labor and welfare ministry of japan ( http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/hokabunya/kenkyujigyou/i-kenkyu/ ) . according to number 6 ( omission of procedures concerning informed consent , etc . ) , chapter 5 , part 12 in this guideline , informed consent was not obtained from the subjects .
cbs and the corresponding histological specimens were cut to 4 m thickness and were prepared on silanized glass slides .
ihc staining and the dish assay were then performed for both cb and histological specimen sections .
the staining and assay were performed with a ventana benchmark ultra ( roche diagnostics , basel , switzerland ) .
the 2013 asco / cap criteria for her2 testing in breast cancer1 was used to categorize the results .
two cases were not used because of low numbers of cells on the cb slides .
the her2 dish assay was performed where there was discrepancy between the ihc results of her2 obtained from cbs and from the corresponding histological specimens .
a single specimen was collected from each tumor using a 21gauge needle attached to a 20 ml syringe mounted on an aspiration gun .
the cells were fixed in 10% buffered formalin for 1628 hour , processed for cb preparation by the sodium alginate method , and embedded in paraffin .
the cb preparation was performed as follows : samplecontaining tubes were centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 5 min , formalin was removed , 1% sodium alginate was added , tubes were centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 5 min , and 1 m calcium chloride was added . the gel pellet formed by this process was used as the histological specimen .
the following tumors were included : 49 invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type , two invasive lobular carcinomas , two noninvasive ductal carcinomas , and one mucinous carcinoma .
ihc staining was performed on both the cb and histological sections using the ventana iview dab detection kit .
the protocol involving heat... | backgroundhuman epidermal growth factor receptor 2 ( her2 ) testing of samples from recurrent or metastatic breast cancer is recommended by the 2013 update of the american society of clinical oncology / college of american pathologists guidelines .
although cytological analysis can be applied to several types of metastatic lesions , the practical method for her2 testing of cytological specimens is yet to be resolved .
we conducted immunohistochemical ( ihc ) staining for her2 in breast cancer cell blocks ( cbs ) and compared the results with those from the corresponding histological specimens . in cases of discrepancy between the two types of specimen ,
the brightfield her2 dual in situ hybridization ( dish ) assay was performed.methodscbs were prepared from 54 surgically excised breast cancers .
the cells were fixed in 10% buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin .
a ventana benchmark ultra ( roche diagnostics ) with antiher2/neu ( 4b5 ) rabbit monoclonal primary antibody and inform her2/neu dual ish dna probe cocktail was used for the assays.resultssuccessful results were obtained in 52 of 54 cbs .
forty cases showed agreement between cbs and the histological specimens .
no discrepancy was observed between the two types of specimens in cases where her2 expression was positive .
ihc results of cb in 12 discrepant cases were her2 intermediate or negative .
the dish results of 11 of these cases were negative.conclusionihc staining of her2 for breast cancer cbs can be used in the same way as that used for histological specimens , although the number of equivocal cases in cbs is greater than that in histological specimens .
diagn . cytopathol .
2016;44:274279 .
2016 the authors diagnostic cytopathology published by wiley periodicals , inc . |
7,113 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the transamidase complex catalyzes the glycosylphosphatidylinositol ( gpi ) lipid anchor attachment to substrate proteins of eukaryotes in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum ( er ) .
it remains one of the poorly understood macromolecular machines , both with regard to the molecular function of its many subunits , as well as their 3d structure , despite more than 25 years of research in the vertebrate , yeast , and trypanosomal model systems .
first , a c - terminal propeptide is cleaved from the substrate protein . then in the next step
, a peptide bond is formed between the newly established c - terminal residue ( called -site ) of the substrate protein and a phosphoethanolamine group of the gpi lipid anchor . the c - terminal , 4-partite sequence pattern for gpi lipid anchoring in substrate proteins is well established and can recognize substrate proteins with high sensitivity and low false - positive prediction rate .
the gpi lipid anchor pathway has a role in multiple human pathologies including cancer . in human ,
the known subunits of the gpi lipid anchor transamidase complex are pig - k ( gpi8p in yeast ) , pig - s ( gpi17p ) , pig - t ( gpi16p ) , gpaa1 ( gaa1 ) , and the subunit pig - u ( cdc91/gab1 ) was found most recently .
subunits pig - k and pig - t were discovered to form a covalent complex via a disulphide bridge .
pig - k is a c13-clade cysteine protease with a predicted 3d structure similar to that of gingipain r and caspases .
it is known to cleave the c - terminal propeptide from the substrate protein even in the absence of a gpi lipid anchor .
the 3d structure of pig - t is predicted to be a c - terminal -propeller complemented with an n - terminal -helical hook that embraces the protease pig - k .
it is thought that pig - t shields the active site of pig - k from attacking unrelated proteins .
so far , the molecular functions and structures of the remaining 3 subunits remain in the dark . here , we report sequence - analytic evidence that the lumenal domain of gaa1/gpaa1 has a 3d... | the transamidase subunit gaa1/gpaa1 is predicted to be the enzyme that catalyzes the attachment of the glycosylphosphatidyl ( gpi ) lipid anchor to the carbonyl intermediate of the substrate protein at the -site .
its ~300-amino acid residue lumenal domain is a m28 family metallo - peptide - synthetase with an / hydrolase fold , including a central 8-strand -sheet and a single metal ( most likely zinc ) ion coordinated by 3 conserved polar residues .
phosphoethanolamine is used as an adaptor to make the non - peptide gpi lipid anchor look chemically similar to the n terminus of a peptide . |
7,114 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: stage iiia endometrial cancer represents a wide range of tumor involvement , including the uterine serosa , adnexa , parametria , and peritoneal space , based on the staging system of the international federation of gynecology and obstetrics ( figo ) in 1988 [ 1 - 3 ] .
in addition , the heterogeneity of histology , such as papillary serous or clear cell carcinoma , makes it difficult to compare outcomes between studies .
this variability has led to a wide range of 5-year overall survival ( os ) rates for stage iiia endometrial cancer , varying from 39% to 76% [ 3 - 6 ] . the optimal adjuvant management for patients with advanced endometrial cancer has yet to be defined , particularly for iiia patients as incidence is low , representing only 2.6% of patients with endometrial cancer .
radiotherapy ( rt ) has traditionally been employed in advanced endometrial carcinoma to improve locoregional control .
several studies have evaluated the role of combined modality adjuvant therapy compared with a single modality in advanced endometrial cancer and have suggested that combined chemoradiotherapy ( ctrt ) can provide additional benefits compared with computed tomography ( ct ) or rt alone [ 10 - 13 ] .
in contrast , a randomized study failed to show an improvement in disease - free survival ( dfs ) and os in patients treated with combined ctrt compared with adjuvant rt alone for high - risk endometrial cancer .
thus , the effects of different adjuvant therapies for stage iiia endometrial cancer remain controversial .
in addition , these previous studies involved a small portion of iiia populations , patient s stage was determined based on the 1988 figo stage , and both endometriod and non - endometrioid adenocarcinoma were included .
the current study included a group of patients with stage iiia endometrioid adenocarcinoma with favorable histology only , using the revised 2009 figo stage to overcome the aforementioned variabilities .
the revised figo iiia , which was published in 2009 , excluded positive peritoneal... | purposewe evaluated the role of adjuvant therapy in stage iiia endometrioid adenocarcinoma patients who underwent surgery followed by radiotherapy ( rt ) alone or chemoradiotherapy ( ctrt ) according to risk group.materials and methodsa multicenter retrospective study was conducted including patients with surgical stage iiia endometrial cancertreated by radical surgery and adjuvant rt or ctrt .
disease - free survival ( dfs ) and overall survival ( os ) were analyzed.resultsninety-three patients with stage iiia disease were identified .
nineteen patients ( 20.4% ) experienced recurrence , mostly distant metastasis ( 17.2% ) .
combined ctrt did not affect dfs ( 74.1% vs. 82.4% , p=0.130 ) or os
( 96.3% vs. 91.9% , p=0.262 ) in stage iiia disease compared with rt alone .
patients with age 60 years , grade g2/3 , and lymphovascular space involvement had a significantly worse dfs and those variables were defined as risk factors .
the high - risk group showed a significant reduction in 5-year dfs ( 2 risk factors ) ( 49.0% vs. 88.0% , p < 0.001 ) compared with the low - risk group ( < 2 ) .
multivariate analysis confirmed that more than one risk factor was the only predictor of worse dfs ( hazard ratio , 5.45 ; 95% confidence interval , 2.12 to 13.98 ; p < 0.001 ) . of patients with no risk factors ,
a subset treated with rt alone showed an excellent 5-year dfs and os ( 93.8% and 100% , respectively).conclusionwe identified a low - risk subset of stage iiia endometrioid adenocarcinoma patients who might be reasonable candidates for adjuvant rt alone .
further randomized studies are needed to determine which subset might benefit from combined ctrt . |
7,115 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: hydatid disease ( hd ) , which is caused by echinococcus granulosus , is a common parasitic infestation especially in endemic regions such as the middle east , mediterranean , and south american countries . even though it mainly involves the liver , it has been reported in nearly all parts of the body .
the incidence of the splenic cysts in hd varies from one series to another , ranges 0.54% of all cases of echinococcosis .
however , one study showed that hd is common in jordan , but isolated spleen disease is described only in 2.5% of cases .
symptoms of splenic hydatidosis is usually mild and is mainly caused due to pressure of adjacent organs such as colon / diaphragm or the presence of complications .
cysts may become infected or may rupture into the peritoneal cavity , especially subcapsularly located cysts like our case .
the hydatid fluid is antigenic and highly toxic and can cause a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction in humans .
herein , we describe an acute happening of anaphylactic shock due to a spontaneous rupture of the primary isolated hydatid cyst in a 57-year - old woman .
a 57-year - old woman was admitted to the emergency department for diffuse maculopapular rashes on the whole body and anaphylactic shock .
she had been complaining of sudden- onset of abdominal pain , dyspnea , pruritus , and urticaria . on physical examination , it revealed tenderness , guarding , and rigidity all over the abdomen .
the patient recovered after emergency medications and then abdominal computed tomography ( ct ) revealed a splenic cystic lesion measuring about 9 6 cm in diameters and containing floating membranes .
the anterior wall of the cyst showed discontinuity at a point [ figure 1 ] .
then , the patient underwent a laparoscopic partial cystectomy and omentoplasty , since the spread of the disease into the peritoneal cavity of lesions was strong contraindications for a radical surgical approach . at the time of laparotomy
the postoperative course was uneventful , and the patient was discharged 10... | echinococcosis is a helminthic zoonosis mainly caused by echinococcus granulosus and commonly encountered in endemic areas .
the liver and lung are the most frequently involved organs . a primary isolated hydatid cyst of spleen is an extremely rare disease even in endemic areas .
anaphylactic reaction is a known complication of cystic hydatid disease , a parasitic infestation caused by the larval / cyst stage of e. granulosus that usually occurs after trauma or during interventions . to the best of our knowledge ,
anaphylaxis with spontaneous rupture of primary isolated splenic hydatidoses had not been reported previously .
the main purpose of this report is to highlight life - threatening complications such as anaphylactic shock that should be considered due to primary isolated splenic cyst hydatid rupture in especially endemic regions . |
7,116 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: regional odontodysplasia ( ro ) is a rare developmental dental anomaly that involves ectoderm and mesoderm derived tissues .
the prevalence of this condition is still not clear since the studies reported till date have mainly been based on case reports .
although several factors such as local trauma , infection , ischemia , neural damage , and somatic mutations of neural crest cell migration have been advocated , the underlying pathophysiology of the condition remains unclear .
the maxillary teeth are more commonly affected , and only four cases of mandibular involvement have been reported so far .
the teeth with ro often display a brownish or yellowish discoloration and most frequent clinical symptoms accompanied by this anomaly are failure of eruption and gingival enlargement .
radiologically , the affected teeth illustrate hypoplastic crowns and lack of contrast between enamel and dentin is usually apparent . enamel and the dentin are very thin , displaying a ghost - like appearance . the other pathognomic radiological characteristics are enlarged pulp chambers , short roots , and open apices .
a 33-month - old boy reported to the department of pediatric and preventive dentistry of our college with the complaint of delayed eruption of teeth in the lower jaw .
there was no history of abnormal tooth anomalies on both maternal and paternal part of the family .
extra - oral examination revealed normal symmetrical face and normal skin , hair , and nails .
the intra - oral examination revealed an adequate maxillary arch with fully erupted primary teeth .
all the maxillary teeth appeared normal except for some carious involvements in molars [ figure 1 ] .
although all the primary teeth were visible in the mandibular arch , they were not fully erupted and seemed to be embedded in abnormal , slightly hyperplastic alveolar mucosa .
furthermore , these teeth revealed abnormal crown morphology with yellowish discoloration and hypoplastic enamel [ figure 2 ] .
normal maxillary arch with a full complement of teeth... | regional odontodysplasia ( ro ) is a rare developmental anomaly involving both mesodermal and ectodermal components in primary or permanent dentition .
it affects the maxilla and the mandible or both ; however , maxilla is more commonly involved .
this article reports the case of 33-month - old boy who came with the chief complaint of delayed eruption of mandibular teeth .
findings of clinical and radiographic examination were consistent with those of ro .
maxillary dentition was unaffected . clinical and radiographic features and treatment options
are discussed . |
7,117 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: genomic instability , a key hallmark of cancer , is driven in part by oncogene - induced dna replication stress ( drs ) .
specifically , in cancer cells , activated oncogenes induce dissociation of the replication machinery from the dna fork ( fork collapse ) , formation of dna double - strand breaks ( dsbs ) , and genomic instability ( gorgoulis et al . , 2005 , bartkova et al . , 2005 ,
, 2008 , negrini et al . , 2010 , arlt et al . , 2012 , hills and diffley , 2014 , macheret and halazonetis , 2015 ) .
prolonged exposure to chemical agents that interfere with dna replication can also lead to fork collapse ( branzei and foiani , 2010 , petermann et al .
following fork collapse , dna replication can be completed by repair of the collapsed forks , by incoming replication forks , or by dormant origin firing ( branzei and foiani , 2010 , blow et al . , 2011 , yeeles et al . , 2013 , mayle et al . , 2015 ) .
we previously described break - induced replication ( bir ) as a repair pathway for collapsed dna replication forks in cancer cells ( costantino et al . , 2014 ) and ,
more recently , the scope of bir in human cells was expanded to include dna replication repair in prophase and alternative lengthening of telomeres ( minocherhomji et al . , 2015 ,
bir has been studied extensively in budding yeast , as a homologous recombination ( hr)-based repair pathway for one - ended dna dsbs ( llorente et al . , 2008 ,
notably , the d loop moves together with the replication fork , and dna replication is conservative ( donnianni and symington , 2013 , saini et al .
these unique properties distinguish bir - initiated forks from origin - initiated forks and suggest the involvement of different proteins at these two types of forks .
indeed , pol32 , a nonessential subunit of budding yeast dna polymerase delta , is required for bir , but not for origin - initiated replication ( lydeard et al . , 2007 ) .
mammalian pold3 , the ortholog of budding yeast pol32 , is also required for bir , as is pold4 , another... | summaryhuman cancers are characterized by the presence of oncogene - induced dna replication stress ( drs ) , making them dependent on repair pathways such as break - induced replication ( bir ) for damaged dna replication forks . to better understand bir
, we performed a targeted sirna screen for genes whose depletion inhibited g1 to s phase progression when oncogenic cyclin e was overexpressed .
rad52 , a gene dispensable for normal development in mice , was among the top hits . in cells in which fork collapse was induced by oncogenes or chemicals , the rad52 protein localized to drs foci .
depletion of rad52 by sirna or knockout of the gene by crispr / cas9 compromised restart of collapsed forks and led to dna damage in cells experiencing drs .
furthermore , in cancer - prone , heterozygous apc mutant mice , homozygous deletion of the rad52 gene suppressed tumor growth and prolonged lifespan .
we therefore propose that mammalian rad52 facilitates repair of collapsed dna replication forks in cancer cells . |
7,118 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: boronic acids and their
derivatives are versatile reagents in modern
organic synthesis , and the hydroboration reaction is a well - established
method for generating these building blocks through the addition of
b
first described by hurd in
1948 and later developed in detail by brown , this reaction has inspired many catalyzed variants .
recently , several compelling examples of related b x bond
addition reactivity have been reported for x = c , si , sn , s , b , cl , br , and i ( figure 1a ) .
many of these transformations
proceed through the oxidative addition of a catalytic transition metal
such ni(0 ) , pd(0 ) , or pt(0 ) into the b x bond .
( a ) previous
work developing addition of b x bonds across
alkynes .
o
bonds across alkynes . despite this progress , the corresponding activation of b
o
bonds and addition to c c multiple bonds alkoxyboration has
remained elusive for 65 years .
this striking dearth
of b o bond activation reactivity may be due to the extremely
high strength of the b o bond , 136 kcal / mol , compared
to less than 105 kcal / mol for all others entries in the series .
this high stability may render the b o
bond unreactive toward oxidative addition , thus preventing the successful
application of ni , pd , or pt catalysis in an alkoxyboration reaction .
organoboron reagents are the building
blocks of choice for medicinal chemistry and drug discovery . given that ethers are found in many diverse
classes of natural products and in nearly
25% of the top - grossing pharmaceuticals in the united states for 2012 , the development of such a transformation allows
for the preparation of oxygen - containing building blocks useful in
drug discovery and materials science .
herein we report the realization of an alkoxyboration reaction
of alkynes ( figure 1b ) , through which new o- heterocyclic organoboronate coupling partners are available
for downstream functionalization .
the high functional group tolerance
of this reaction enables... | for nearly 70 years , the addition
of boron x bonds
to carbon
carbon multiple bonds has been employed in the preparation
of organoboron reagents . however , the significantly higher strength
of boron
oxygen bonds has thus far precluded their activation
for addition , preventing a direct route to access a potentially valuable
class of oxygen - containing organoboron reagents for divergent synthesis .
we herein report the realization of an alkoxyboration reaction , the
addition of boron oxygen bonds to alkynes . functionalized o - heterocyclic boronic acid derivatives are produced using
this transformation , which is mild and exhibits broad functional group
compatibility .
our results demonstrate activation of this boron
o
bond using a gold catalysis strategy that is fundamentally
different from that used previously for other boron addition reactions . |
7,119 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: with the rising proportion of older adults and increases in life expectancy , there has been increased interest in maintaining and promoting cognitive health in later life .
although declines in some domains of cognition are part of the natural course of aging [ 2 , 3 ] , sufficient evidence from prospective and observational studies indicates that the trajectories and outcomes of cognitive decline may be mitigated by participating in cognitively stimulating activities [ 4 , 5 ] .
recent reviews of cognitive interventions suggest some potential benefits that may improve functioning in healthy older adults or slow decline in individuals with mild cognitive impairment ( mci ) and those already affected with dementia [ 69 ] .
results from a meta - analysis of randomized controlled trials in healthy aging revealed a strong positive effect on cognition at immediate , medium- , and long - term followup after cognitive training .
compelling results from large longitudinal studies have also shown that engagement in everyday cognitive activities predicts preserved cognition [ 11 , 12 ] and decreases in incident alzheimer 's disease .
technologies , currently valued at $ 300 million , is projected to swell exponentially within this decade .
a facet of this research that is relatively understudied involves examining the degree to which discrete types of everyday cognitive activity relate to change in specific cognitive domains over time .
most of the aforementioned trials incorporated training in multiple cognitive abilities and accordingly found support for cognitive training in general , but some reviews report less promising results for domain - specific training .
memory is frequently the targeted cognitive domain in many interventions , with training involving efforts to improve recall of newly learned information , including skills training , imagery , and mnemonic strategy use ; however , meta - analyses reveal minimal efficacy for memory - focused techniques .
investigations of the effectiveness of training... | engagement in cognitively stimulating activities has been considered to maintain or strengthen cognitive skills , thereby minimizing age - related cognitive decline .
while the idea that there may be a modifiable behavior that could lower risk for cognitive decline is appealing and potentially empowering for older adults , research findings have not consistently supported the beneficial effects of engaging in cognitively stimulating tasks . using observational studies of naturalistic cognitive activities ,
we report a series of mixed effects models that include baseline and change in cognitive activity predicting cognitive outcomes over up to 21 years in four longitudinal studies of aging .
consistent evidence was found for cross - sectional relationships between level of cognitive activity and cognitive test performance .
baseline activity at an earlier age did not , however , predict rate of decline later in life , thus not supporting the concept that engaging in cognitive activity at an earlier point in time increases one 's ability to mitigate future age - related cognitive decline .
in contrast , change in activity was associated with relative change in cognitive performance .
results therefore suggest that change in cognitive activity from one 's previous level has at least a transitory association with cognitive performance measured at the same point in time . |
7,120 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: israel s center for disease control seasonal influenza surveillance system operated throughout our 5-year study .
the system is based primarily on 1 ) anonymous patient visits for influenza - like illnesses ( ili ) to maccabi community clinics , israel s second largest health maintenance organization , insuring 1 of every 4 israelis ; and 2 ) nasopharyngeal swabs from sample ili patients at designated sentinel clinics countrywide .
ili was defined as fever ( > 37.8c ) with > 1 of the following : cough , coryza , sore throat , or myalgia .
swab samples were tested for influenza viruses at the health ministry s central virology laboratory ( 1 ) by using multiplex real - time reverse transcription pcr ( rt - pcr ) ( taqman chemistry quantitative rt - pcr ) ( 2 ) .
ili rates constituted 3 escalating waves of infection , all at times atypical for seasonal influenza ( figure 1 ) .
israel s schools close july / august , but children stay together in summer frameworks during july .
wave 2 peaked mid - september ( week 38 ) , 2 weeks into the school year , declining when schools closed for holidays until the end of week 41 . during week 42 , the third , largest wave began , peaking mid - november ( week 46 ) .
rates of weekly visits to community health clinics for influenza - like illness , by age group , june 2009april 2010 , compared with the 20052009 average ( maccabi health services ) , with school holidays indicated , israel .
the cumulative incidence ( cases/10,000 population ) of ili in children 018 years of age during the pandemic ( week 25 , 2009 to week 7 , 2010 ) was 369.3 ( 95% confidence interval [ ci ] 365.7373.1 ) , far higher than average rates documented in earlier influenza seasons ( 143.4 , 95% ci 140.7146.2 ) .
incidence was 295.8 ( 95% ci 285.7306.1 ) for children < 2 years of age , 347.1 ( 95% ci 338.4355.9 ) for children 24 years of age , and 389.4 ( 95% ci 382.5391.4 ) for children 518 years of age , compared with 107.8 ( 95% ci 100.9115.1 ) , 179.5 ( 95% ci 172.5186.7 ) , and 140.2 ( 95% ci... | during the pandemic ( h1n1 ) 2009 outbreak in israel , incidence rates among children were 2 higher than that of the previous 4 influenza seasons ; hospitalization rates were 5 higher .
children hospitalized for pandemic ( h1n1 ) 2009 were older and had more underlying chronic diseases than those hospitalized for seasonal influenza . |
7,121 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: with the enactment of section 2991 of the social security amendments of 1972 ( public law 92 - 603 ) , full medicare coverage was extended to persons with end stage renal disease ( esrd ) , effective july 1 , 1973 . to be eligible for medicare esrd benefits ,
the patient must first be currently or fully insured , be eligible for social security benefits , or be the spouse or a dependent child of such a person .
additionally , a physician must certify that the individual requires chronic dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life .
the medicare program pays a prospectively determined amount for kidney transplants and for certain drug treatments . for example , immunosuppressive drugs prescribed for transplant recipients are covered by medicare for 1 year following discharge from the transplant hospitalization . the drug , epoietin , used to combat anemia in dialysis patients , was added to medicare coverage effective june 1 , 1989 .
integral to the effective management of the esrd program is the operation of a comprehensive data base covering medical and demographic information for the medicare esrd population .
this data base , along with other esrd program - related data , is a part of a larger computer system the esrd program management and medical information system .
this system served as the principal source for the data used in this article . in this article , trends for the medicare esrd population are examined by comparing : esrd enrollment with the total medicare enrollment ( i.e. , the count of people enrolled for coverage at a certain point in time ) .
rates of growth for enrollment in esrd by age groups and for the incidence ( new cases ) of esrd by age groups .
( these comparisons are made to provide evidence of the aging of the esrd population . )
the comparison of esrd to the total medicare program in terms of numbers of beneficiaries enrolled and expenditures is shown in table 1 .
this table shows that the esrd population is growing at a much faster rate than the medicare population in... | a synopsis is given between the relationship of the number of end stage renal disease ( esrd ) patients to the total medicare population and their associated expenditures .
the aging trend within the esrd population is examined in terms of enrollment statistics and incidence ( new cases ) counts .
also , longitudinal trends in expenditures , program enrollment , and incidence of esrd are included .
findings indicate that the esrd population is growing at a faster rate than medicare in general .
further , within esrd , the beneficiary population is aging . |
7,122 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the online version of this article ( doi:10.1007/s00125 - 010 - 1741 - 9 ) contains a list of members of adag study group , which is available to authorised users .
current understanding of normoglycaemia is largely based on studies of populations without diabetes , often with a small number of glucose measurements per individual .
this results in limited insight into patterns of real - life glycaemia as experienced by healthy individuals . as new options in diabetes treatment increasingly focus on specific glucose profiles such as postprandial glycaemia , it is important to have a clearer understanding of what constitutes a normal glucose profile .
knowledge of how much time normoglycaemic individuals spend at different levels of glycaemia under real - life conditions is needed to serve as a benchmark for the more detailed study of impaired glycaemic states and the ability of novel treatments to normalise glucose profiles .
we therefore studied the glucose profiles of non - diabetic individuals who participated in the a1c - derived average glucose ( adag ) study .
this observational study included continuous interstitial glucose monitoring ( cgm ) under real - life conditions .
our aim was to analyse to what extent individuals without diabetes exceed ogtt thresholds for impaired glucose tolerance ( igt ) and diabetes .
study participants the adag study was conducted at ten centres in the usa , europe and africa from 2006 to 2008 .
the population for the present analysis consisted of the 80 non - diabetic control participants who completed the intensive glucose monitoring period of 12 weeks .
the non - diabetic participants were selected on the basis of having no history of diabetes , a plasma glucose level 5.4 mmol / l ( 97 mg / dl ) after an overnight fast and hba1c < 6.5% .
the plasma glucose cut - off was chosen due to its high specificity for excluding diabetes without performing an ogtt .the study was approved by the human studies committees at the participating institutions , and informed consent... | aims / hypothesisreal - life glycaemic profiles of healthy individuals are poorly studied .
our aim was to analyse to what extent individuals without diabetes exceed ogtt thresholds for impaired glucose tolerance ( igt ) and diabetes.methodsin the a1c - derived average glucose ( adag ) study , 80 participants without diabetes completed an intensive glucose monitoring period of 12 weeks . from these data , we calculated the average 24 h glucose exposure as time spent above different plasma glucose thresholds .
we also derived indices of postprandial glucose levels , glucose variability and hba1c.resultswe found that 93% of participants reached glucose concentrations above the igt threshold of 7.8 mmol / l and spent a median of 26 min / day above this level during continuous glucose monitoring .
eight individuals ( 10% ) spent more than 2 h in the igt range .
they had higher hba1c , fasting plasma glucose ( fpg ) , age and bmi than those who did not .
seven participants ( 9% ) reached glucose concentrations above 11.1
mmol / l during monitoring.conclusions/interpretationeven though the non - diabetic individuals monitored in the adag study were selected on the basis of a very low level of baseline fpg , 10% of these spent a considerable amount of time at glucose levels considered to be prediabetic or indicating igt .
this highlights the fact that exposure to moderately elevated glucose levels remains under - appreciated when individuals are classified on the basis of isolated glucose measurements.electronic supplementary materialthe online version of this article ( doi:10.1007/s00125 - 010 - 1741 - 9 ) contains a list of members of adag study group , which is available to authorised users . |
7,123 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: nowadays , with technological advances in medicine , the use of invasive procedures and injections in patients has expanded . as a result
, health care staffs are exposed to a high risk of blood - borne pathogens ( 1 ) .
needle stick injury ( nsi ) is one of the most dangerous occupational situations ( 2 ) . among 20 types of blood - borne pathogens , which are transferred through nsi to health care workers , viral infections such as hepatitis b , c and human immunodeficiency virus ( hiv )
studies have shown that being exposed to infectious diseases and nsi can cause stress in nurses ( 6 ) .
this particular type of stress has a negative impact on the individuals and influences their families and colleagues ( 7 ) .
stress represents a major occupational hazard in modern age and has been incriminated for productivity reduction , absence from job , displacement of personnel , work conflicts and higher health care costs for employees ( 8) . in a study on the psychological consequences of nsi , greene and griffiths found that the severity of the illness caused by needle stick is as significant as other psychological traumas .
moreover , the depression resulting from this situation is similar to other psychological traumas , and the duration of the condition is associated with the duration of obtaining the result of the second test .
this has a far - reaching impact on family relationships , sexual health and presence at the workplace ( 9 ) . between 1992 and 2003 ,
leigh et al . stated that injury stress led to the absence of 903 nurses , physicians and workers .
moreover , 7% of the injuries resulted in loss of more than 31 working days ( 10 ) .
performed a study , which measured the incidence of post - traumatic stress disorder ( ptsd ) after injury , on doctors .
results showed that 12% were suffering from ptsd reactions , therefore suggesting an emphasis on addressing psychological reactions to nsi ( 11 ) . despite numerous studies performed on the prevalence and incidence of injuries from sharp objects in... | backgroundinjuries caused by sharp objects , which involve biological hazards are considered as one of the most important factors that lead to stress among the nursing staff .
contact with sharp objects is a major concern among healthcare workers , especially nurses.objectivesthis study was done to determine the amount of stress caused by exposure to sharp medical instruments among nurses.materials and methodsthis was a cross - sectional research on 527 nurses , working at different medical centers across iran , with a cluster - sampling method .
the relevant data was collected with a valid and reliable questionnaire .
the cronbach s alpha coefficient of internal consistency of this instrument was 0.92 and interclass correlation coefficient was 0.94resultsthe results showed that ward satisfaction , having master of science , age , and number of contacts were significantly able to predict variance in stress scores .
the adjusted line regression model explained 36% of the overall variance in stress score ( r2 = 0.60)conclusionsthe results of this study showed that exposure to sharp objects may cause high stress in the nursing staff .
considering higher levels of stress in the area of contact care , the provisions on how to deal with patients and safe care can help reduce stress . |
7,124 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ultracold polar molecules are attracting
considerable attention ,
and their investigation will extend our knowledge on the physics of
ultracold quantum gases into new regimes .
a very interesting class of molecules in this regard is represented
by mixed alkali alkaline earth ( ak ake ) molecules with
both electric and magnetic dipole moments in their 1/2 electronic ground state .
such molecules are proposed for
engineering the lattice spin models of condensed matter physics , a
state of matter with topological order , that can be used for the realization
of a new class of quantum computation .
further applications
for ultracold ak ake molecules are precision metrology with
the aim to test fundamental physics constants or
quantum state selective ultracold chemistry .
the most promising starting point for the production of ultracold
ak ake molecules are quantum degenerate mixtures of ultracold
alkali and alkaline - earth atoms . though mixtures of homo- and heteronuclear
alkali molecules have been studied extensively in the past ( see ref ( 1 ) and references therein ) ,
investigations of ak ake like mixtures have only been reported
for liyb and rbyb .
recent progress in
ultracold atomic physics ( e.g. the bose einstein condensation
of alkaline earth metal atoms ca and
sr ) suggests that the formation of ultracold ground state
ak ake molecules is within reach , and quantum degenerate mixtures
of rb and sr atoms have been successfully realized very recently .
the standard methods to overcome the gap between
the interatomic pair distance in an ultracold atomic gas and the final
binding length of the diatomic molecule are to convert ultracold atoms
to molecules by either photoassociation or magneto - association followed by
coherent population transfer to produce ground state molecules .
this
approach has been successfully used for the preparation of ground
state cs2 , krb , and sr2 molecules by stimulated
raman adiabatic passage ( stirap ) . an... | we report on the formation of mixed
alkali alkaline earth
molecules ( lica ) on helium nanodroplets and present a comprehensive
experimental and theoretical study of the ground and excited states
of lica .
resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization time - of - flight
( rempi - tof ) spectroscopy and laser induced fluorescence ( lif ) spectroscopy
were used for the experimental investigation of lica from 15000 to
25500 cm1 .
the 42+ and 32 states show a vibrational structure accompanied
by distinct phonon wings , which allows us to determine molecular parameters
as well as to study the interaction of the molecule with the helium
droplet .
higher excited states ( 42 , 52+ , 52 , and 62+ ) are not vibrationally resolved and vibronic transitions
start to overlap .
the experimental spectrum is well reproduced by
high - level ab initio calculations . by using a multireference configuration
interaction ( mrci ) approach
, we calculated the 19 lowest lying potential
energy curves ( pecs ) of the lica molecule .
on the basis of these calculations ,
we could identify previously unobserved transitions .
our results demonstrate
that the helium droplet isolation approach is a powerful method for
the characterization of tailor - made alkali alkaline earth molecules .
in this way
, important contributions can be made to the search for
optimal pathways toward the creation of ultracold alkali
alkaline
earth ground state molecules from the corresponding atomic species .
furthermore , a test for pecs calculated by ab initio methods is provided . |
7,125 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the purposes of this study were to determine the normal retinal microvasculature measurements in human infants who are born at term and to determine whether birth weight influences measurements of retinal microvasculature .
retinal arteriole and venule measurements were obtained in a cohort of 24 infants who were born at term .
digital images of both the retinas were obtained using a digital retinal camera after pupillary dilation .
in all , 24 newborn infants born at term ( 12 females and 12 males ) were analyzed in this study .
the measured retinal arteriole diameters were from 66.8 to 147.8 m ( mean , 94.219.6 m ) , and the venule diameters were from 102.0 to 167.8 m ( mean , 135.219.1 m ) .
seven babies in the sample had low birth weight ( lbw ) , while 17 babies were born with normal weight .
babies with lower birth weights had larger arteriole ( 113.117.9 m vs 86.414.4 m ; p=0.0009 ) and venule diameters ( 151.714.9 m vs 128.416.9 m ; p=0.0040 ) .
retinal venules and arterioles in lbw babies are larger compared with those of normal - birth - weight babies .
we postulate that the difference observed in our study was due to in utero pathophysiological changes that occurred in the cerebral circulation of growth - restricted fetuses .
in utero insults that result in low - birth - weight ( lbw ) infants ( birth weight < 2500 g ) are now well recognized as risk factors contributing to the development of vascular - related diseases in adulthood .
lbw infants are a heterogeneous group of infants , comprising infants who are premature ( < 37 completed weeks of gestation ) , growth - restricted ( weight below the 10th percentile for their gestational age ) or a combination of both .
the exact mechanism of this phenomenon has yet to be fully understood , but there is increasing evidence to suggest that microcirculatory pathology forms the mechanistic link between fetal insult and the adult manifestation of illness .
the retina provides an opportunity for in vivo investigation of human microcirculation ,... | objective : the purposes of this study were to determine the normal retinal microvasculature measurements in human infants who are born at term and to determine whether birth weight influences measurements of retinal microvasculature.study design : retinal arteriole and venule measurements were obtained in a cohort of 24 infants who were born at term .
digital images of both the retinas were obtained using a digital retinal camera after pupillary dilation.result:in all , 24 newborn infants born at term ( 12 females and 12 males ) were analyzed in this study .
the measured retinal arteriole diameters were from 66.8 to 147.8 m ( mean , 94.219.6 m ) , and the venule diameters were from 102.0 to 167.8 m ( mean , 135.219.1 m ) .
seven babies in the sample had low birth weight ( lbw ) , while 17 babies were born with normal weight .
babies with lower birth weights had larger arteriole ( 113.117.9 m vs 86.414.4 m ; p=0.0009 ) and venule diameters ( 151.714.9 m vs 128.416.9 m ; p=0.0040).conclusion : retinal venules and arterioles in lbw babies are larger compared with those of normal - birth - weight babies . we postulate that the difference observed in our study was due to in utero pathophysiological changes that occurred in the cerebral circulation of growth - restricted fetuses . |
7,126 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the possibility of controlling the motion of a robotic arm by mere thought , as suggested by popular media since the advent of brain - machine interfaces ( bmis ) , has captured the imagination of fiction writers and science journalists .
but is mind control a reasonable or even a desirable practical goal for the future of neuroprosthetics ? if the ultimate clinical objective is to endow amputees and paralyzed people with the ability to act naturally through the interaction of their brain with an artificial limb , then
the fact is that , as we carry out the simplest actions , such as operating the handle of a door , we do not occupy our minds with what we are doing .
we do not think about opening up the grasp , closing it on the handle , twisting the wrist and so on . this is because motor acts are stored in the brain in hierarchically organized goal - directed actions .
the addressing of a given action representation is the only thing the brain must do in order to cause the cascade of events leading to execution . in other words ,
our nervous systems do all that is needed without loading our thought processes , apart from the explicit activation of a very general action procedure .
it is only in the early stages of learning that one must be aware of the details of one 's detailed movements .
the goal of this review is to provide a perspective that emerged from work by our group and others on how bmis , based on the bidirectional flow of information between a neural population and a controlled device , may lead to the creation of automatic behavior .
these interactions are also a fundamental tool for investigating how information is processed by the brain . in the early 90s , sharp ,
abbott and marder , introduced a new method to bridge the gap between experimental and computational analysis of neural behavior ( sharp et al .
they established a direct dialogue between a computer simulation and a group of neurons in a dish .
the technique is called dynamic clamp and is based on an exquisitely simple idea... | brain - machine interfaces ( bmis ) are mostly investigated as a means to provide paralyzed people with new communication channels with the external world .
however , the communication between brain and artificial devices also offers a unique opportunity to study the dynamical properties of neural systems .
this review focuses on bidirectional interfaces , which operate in two ways by translating neural signals into input commands for the device and the output of the device into neural stimuli .
we discuss how bidirectional bmis help investigating neural information processing and how neural dynamics may participate in the control of external devices . in this respect
, a bidirectional bmi can be regarded as a fancy combination of neural recording and stimulation apparatus , connected via an artificial body .
the artificial body can be designed in virtually infinite ways in order to observe different aspects of neural dynamics and to approximate desired control policies . |
7,127 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: gardner and richard in their landmark article described a syndrome consisting of hereditary intestinal polyposis , with osteomas and multiple cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions .
after that other dental findings , skin and soft - tissue tumors have been added in the description of this syndrome .
the documented frequency of gardner 's syndrome is in between 1 in 1400 and 12000 live births .
however , approximately 20% of cases represent spontaneous mutations , with no family history reported .
mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli gene which is present on chromosome 5 leads to this condition .
we report a case of gardner 's syndrome in an indian patient which is representing the full continuum of dental , colonic , and extracolonic manifestations .
a 52-year - old male patient reported to the outpatient department with a chief complaint of swelling on the right side of the palate for the past 5 years .
the patient had undergone surgical treatment for a bony swelling at lower border of the mandible about 30 years back .
after that , he was apparently normal until 5 years back when he noticed a small swelling on the palate which was very slowly increasing in size .
the past medical history revealed chronic bowel upset in the form of abdominal cramps and diarrhea .
family history revealed that both sons of the patient had bony swellings of the jaw and both of them were reluctant to get their screening done for gardner 's syndrome . on examination ,
on palpation , all the swellings were bony hard in consistency , nontender and were fixed to the underlying bone .
( a ) extraoral photograph shows fullness of nasolabial folds on both sides with small bony swellings seen on the right temple region .
( b ) bony swellings seen on the right and left sides of the palate . on the right side ,
buccal vestibule is obliterated in 14 and 15 region and palatal swelling is extending from the mesial aspect of 16 to the distal aspect of tooth 17 anteroposteriorly . on the left side ,
the palatal swelling is extending from... | gardner 's syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by the presence of colonic polyposis , osteomas , and a multitude of soft - tissue tumors .
dental anomalies are present in estimated 30% of all affected individuals of gardner 's syndrome , so dental professionals play an important role in determining the early signs of the syndrome .
the intestinal polyps have a 100% risk of undergoing malignant transformation if not treated thus , early diagnosis and regular surveillance are important . in this report , we describe classical presentation of gardner 's syndrome in a patient who presented with bilateral swellings on palate along with multiple impacted teeth . |
7,128 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: severe alpha 1-antitrypsin ( aat ) deficiency ( pizz ) is an autosomal , codominant , hereditary disorder characterized by low aat levels in the serum and lungs .
the main function of aat is to inhibit neutrophil elastase and other serine proteases , including proteinase-3 and plasmin activator.1 this genetic defect results in the polymerization of the aat molecule in the hepatocytes , leading to an accumulation of the z - protein within the hepatocytes and a decreased release into the circulation .
aat deficiency contributes to protein degradation and increased inflammation because of proinflammatory effects of polymerized aat and the loss of anti - inflammatory and antiproteolytic functions.2 in sweden , the prevalence of aat deficiency is 1/1,600 , a figure firmly established by a nationwide screening program of all 200,000 newborns over the period 19721974 , when 127 homozygotes were identified.3 major causes of disability and death associated with severe aat deficiency are early - onset panacinar emphysema and liver disease , which typically presents as cholestasis in infancy , and cirrhosis and primary liver carcinoma ( plc ) in adulthood.1 association with systemic vasculitis ( antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody positive ) , necrotizing panniculitis , and a variety of different inflammatory and neoplastic diseases have also been reported.1,4,5 previously published mortality studies have shown that severe aat deficiency leads to reduced life expectancy and that respiratory failure and liver disease are the most common causes of death.68 very little is known about mortality due to other diseases , such as cardiovascular disease ( cvd ) , inflammatory diseases , and cancer , except for plc that is a well - known risk in pizz individuals.9 increased risk of lung cancer has also been described in carriers of the aat - deficient z and s alleles.10 the swedish national register of individuals with severe aat deficiency , pizz , has comprehensive physiological data and documents comorbidities by regular... | backgroundsevere alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency ( pizz ) predisposes to morbidity and mortality due to early - onset emphysema and liver disease .
the risk of death from other causes , including cardiovascular disease and cancer , has not been well investigated .
we aimed to analyze cause - specific mortality in pizz individuals compared with the general swedish population.methodsdata on 1,561 pizz individuals from the swedish national aat deficiency register , prospectively followed from 1991 to 2014 , were analyzed .
causes of death according to the swedish national causes of death register for the study group were compared with those for the general swedish population matched for age , sex , and calendar year , with the excess mortality expressed as standardized mortality ratios ( smrs ) with 95% confidence intervals ( cis).resultsthere were 524 deaths during the follow - up period .
pizz individuals had excess all - cause mortality compared with the swedish general population ( smr 3.6 , 95% ci 3.33.9 ) .
smr for ischemic heart disease ( ihd ) was 0.5 ( 95% ci 0.30.8 ) and was similar for never and ever - smokers , and in males and females .
smr for lung cancer was 0.9 ( 95% ci 0.41.7 ) .
pizz individuals had increased mortality compared with the general population for the following diseases : respiratory disease , smr 48.4 ( 95% ci 43.054.5 ) ; primary liver carcinoma , smr 90.0 ( 95% ci 59.3130.9 ) ; complicated colon diverticulitis , smr 20.8 ( 95% ci 6.748.6 ) ; and pulmonary embolism , smr 6.9 ( 95% ci 3.312.7).conclusionpizz individuals had a reduced mortality risk of ihd .
mortality due to respiratory , hepatic disease , diverticulitis , and pulmonary embolism was markedly increased compared with the age- and sex - matched swedish population . |
7,129 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 9-year - old female patient reported complaining of pain in the upper front tooth since 3 days .
there was a history of trauma to the same tooth due to fall about 4 days back . on clinical examination ,
periapical radiograph showed incomplete root formation with wide open apices for the same tooth [ figure 1 ] .
the working length was established within one mm of the radiographic apex by using size 30 hedstrom file .
next , pulp extirpation and complete debridement of the canal was done using h file number 40 followed by copious irrigation with normal saline . after drying of the canal using paper points ,
calcium hydroxide powder was mixed with normal saline and this mixture was placed into the canal and pushed to the short of apex using plugger .
, a periapical radiograph was taken , which showed complete formation of the root apex in maxillary right central incisor , without any signs and symptoms and periapical radiolucency .
clinically , apical barrier formation was confirmed by using a size 30 gutta - percha ( gp ) point to check for the presence of a resistant stop and absence of hemorrhage , exudates or sensitivity [ figure 3 ] . in the next visit ,
complete obturation was carried out with gp using lateral condensation technique [ figure 4 ] followed by composite restoration .
case 1 : periapical radiograph showing wide open apex in relation to 21 ( arrow ) case 1 : periapical radiograph showing placement of caoh dressing case 1 : periapical radiograph taken after 3 months shows confirmation of apical barrier with gutta - percha point case 1 : radiograph showing complete obturation of 21 an 11-year - old male patient reported with a chief complaint of discolored right maxillary central incisor with a history of trauma 1 year back .
the periapical radiograph revealed a large blunderbuss canal of the same tooth [ figure 5 ] . on clinical examination ,
pus was extruded from the root canal immediately after the access preparation ; irrigation was done with saline .
calcium hydroxide was placed in the... | the completion of root development and closure of the apex occurs up to 3 years after the eruption of the tooth .
the treatment of pulpal injury during this period provides a significant challenge for the clinician .
the importance of careful case assessment and accurate pulpal diagnosis in the treatment of immature teeth with pulpal injury can not be overemphasized .
the treatment of choice for necrotic teeth is apexification , which is induction of apical closure to produce more favorable conditions for conventional root canal filling . the most commonly advocated medicament is calcium hydroxide , although recently considerable interest has been expressed in the use of mineral trioxide aggregate ( mta ) .
we report a case series wherein calcium hydroxide and mta were used successfully for one step apexification in teeth with open apex . |
7,130 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a literature search using relevant terms such as zn and animal feed , bacteria , ( antibiotic resistance or antimicrobial resistance ) , requirement , bioavailability using the advanced search builder provided by pubmed ( www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed ) or web of science was performed . a similar search using the same terms , but
the reference lists in the selected citation were scrutinized to identify additional articles or reports , overlooked by the searches .
the titles of all hits were scanned , and for those that were of potential relevance , the abstracts were also scanned .
of these , for those of potential relevance , the full text was obtained and assessed whether it was of relevance to this paper .
original and review articles , and textbook content were included as references in this paper .
a list of the articles on zn / cu driven co - selection of antibiotic resistance , which fulfilled the inclusion criteria with summary of the findings and main conclusion , is presented in table 1 .
mrsa : methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus ; mssa : methicillin sensitive staphylococcus aureus , arg : antimicrobial resistance gene
the microbiota associated with animals represents a complex assemblage of microorganisms covering all three domains of life ( bacteria , achaea and eukarya ) ( 5 ) .
all body sites are colonized , with the lower gastrointestinal tract being the most densely populated . in the number of cells ,
the microbiota generally outnumbers the host by a factor of 10 , while with respect to the number of genes the microbiota contains 100 times more genes than the host .
thus , the gut microbiota can be considered an organ in itself ( 6 ) .
the function of the microbiota is to protect the host from pathogen invasion , to train the immune system , to extract energy from low accessible nutrients , and in addition to produce essential vitamins and metabolites needed by the host ( 7 )
. generally , lower gut microbes are strictly anaerobic due to the anaerobic conditions in that area .
the... | farmed animals such as pig and poultry receive additional zn and cu in their diets due to supplementing elements in compound feed as well as medical remedies . enteral bacteria in farmed animals are shown to develop resistance to trace elements such as zn and cu .
resistance to zn is often linked with resistance to methicillin in staphylococci , and zn supplementation to animal feed may increase the proportion of multiresistant e. coli in the gut .
resistance to cu in bacteria , in particular enterococci , is often associated with resistance to antimicrobial drugs like macrolides and glycopeptides ( e.g. vancomycin ) .
such resistant bacteria may be transferred from the food - producing animals to humans ( farmers , veterinarians , and consumers ) .
data on dose - response relation for zn / cu exposure and resistance are lacking ; however , it seems more likely that a resistance - driven effect occurs at high trace element exposure than at more basal exposure levels .
there is also lack of data which could demonstrate whether zn / cu - resistant bacteria may acquire antibiotic resistance genes / become antibiotics resistant , or if antibiotics - resistant bacteria are more capable to become zn / cu resistant than antibiotics - susceptible bacteria .
further research is needed to elucidate the link between zn / cu and antibiotic resistance in bacteria . |
7,131 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: study population and sample preparation : one hundred and 24 human subjects
were included in the dog - contact risk factor group . in detail , the dog - contact risk factor
group was composed of 41 dog owners and 43 veterinarians who regularly contact dogs . in this
group , 12 veterinarians who were themselves dog owners .
each of the dog owners including
veterinarians was matched with their own 39 dogs by labeling for the statistical analyses .
forty human subjects with no history of pet ownership were included for the negative
dog - contact factor ( supplemental fig . 1
) .
the feces and
saliva samples were taken by using sterilized cotton swabs and subsequently submerged in 500
l of autoclaved phosphate buffered saline .
dna was extracted from 20 to
30 l of each sample by using dneasy tissue kit ( qiagen , santa clarita , ca ,
u.s.a . ) .
the dna samples were eluted in 200 l volume and stored in a 20c
freezer until pcr was conducted .
genus - specific pcr : each dna sample was amplified on
helicobacter 16s rrna gene using c70 and b37 outer primers30 , and
subsequently , the pcr products were conducted nested pcr using c97 and c98 inner primer pair
( supplemental table 1 ) . the pcr mixture , total volume of
20 l contained a final primer concentration of 0.5 m , 1
l dna samples ( 0.3 l for nested pcr ) and 18
l diethyl pyrocarbonate treated water , was added to maxime pcr premix
kit ( intron biotechnology inc . ,
the pcr samples were heated at 95c for 5 min
followed by 30 cycles of denaturation at 94c for 45 sec , annealing at 53c for 45 sec and
extension at 72c for 3 min and finally extended at 72c for 15 min using outer primers by
using programmed temperature control system ( pc808 , astec , fukuoka , japan ) . for nested pcr
,
the pcr products were heated at 94c for 2.5 min followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at
94c , annealing at 50.5c , extension at 72c for 1 min each and a final extension at 72c
for 15 min .
the pcr products were electrophoresed by... | abstracthelicobacter spp . may have multiple routes of transmission .
it
is unclear , however , whether the agent is zoonotic and therefore transmitted from an
animal reservoir , including dogs .
the aim of this population - based study was to assess the
relationship between pet ownership or frequent exposure to dogs and
helicobacter spp .
infection , especially focusing on hhlo-2
( helicobacter heilmannii - like organisms type 2 ) in saliva and feces
samples in korea , using non - invasive genus / species - specific pcr .
one hundred twenty - four
eligible human subjects and 39 dogs participated in this study .
relativity of contact with
dogs and helicobacter spp .
infection diagnosed by genus - specific pcr
showed a statistically significant result ( p<0.01 ) , but in the
relativity analyses between contact with dogs and h. pylori , h. felis and
h. bizzozeronii infections diagnosed using species - specific pcr , only
helicobacter felis showed a statistically significant result . although
h. pylori infection showed a statistically significant relativity , no
statistically significant association was found between veterinarian subjects and
helicobacter .
spp . ,
h. felis and h.
bizzozeronii infections . on performing risk factor analyses of hhlo-2 infection
by transmission , using matching species , between hhlo-2-positive dog owners and
hhlo-2-positive dogs , helicobacter felis infection showed an extremely
significant relativity ( p<0.0001 ) , and helicobacter
bizzozeronii may also be a possible significant risk factor
( p<0.01 ) .
these results suggest that hhlo-2 infection might be a
zoonotic infection , because continuous contact with dogs was proved to be correlated with
human h. felis and h. bizzozeronii infections in this
study . |
7,132 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the search for an ideal restorative material is a challenge for which dentistry has yet to find a solution .
thus , for each individual clinical situation , dentists must consider certain properties in order to identify the most suitable material .
such properties include biocompatibility , adhesion to the dental structure , absence of marginal leakage , wear and pressure resistance , fluoride release , setting time , facilities related to its manipulation and cost .
glass ionomer cements ( gic ) are widely indicated in modern dentistry , especially in atraumatic restorative treatment ( art ) and pediatric dentistry .
the first commercially produced ionomer had poor esthetic properties , reduced working time and very slow final setting .
other gic were also introduced to the market , such as silver - modified gic ( ketac silver / espe ) , resin - modified gic ( vitremer / 3 m ) and , more recently , conventional gic with high powder / liquid proportion ( chemflex / dentsply , fuji ixgp / gc corporation , ketac molar / espe , vidrion rcaps / ss white ) .
the latter gic have improved mechanical properties in comparison with their predecessors21 and were especially developed for atraumatic restorative treatment ( art ) .
art is a dental care proposal that attempts to control the development of the carious lesion , helping the organism to react against the attack of cariogenic bacteria .
it basically consists of partial removal of the carious lesions and subsequent filling of cavities with an adhesive restorative material in association with preventive and educational measures6,7,12 .
conventional restorative gic are indicated in art for their adhesion capacity and fluoride release properties as well as the chemical setting mechanism , which foregoes technological sophistication , as this treatment was initially proposed for places without the proper infrastructure
. however , such materials are as yet too costly for widespread use in developing countries such as brazil , especially those with high powder /... | with the aim of assessing the performance of brazilian and imported glass ionomer cements ( gic ) with regard to microleakage , 40 primary molars received two standard class ii cavity preparations with margins in enamel .
twenty cavities were filled with brazilian materials ( vidrion r and vidrion rcaps ) and the other 20 cavities were filled with imported materials ( fuji ix and fuji ixgpfast
capsule ) .
all fillings were performed by a single operator according to the manufacturer 's instructions .
teeth were immersed in 0.5% methylene blue and half - sectioned .
three independent calibrated examiners assessed microleakage using scores ( 0 - 3 ) .
data were submitted to the kruskal - wallis statistical test and wilcoxon analysis .
high microleakage indexes were verified for all ionomer cements : 59.5% of the samples restored with vidrion r or vidrion rcaps and 83.4% of the samples restored with fuji ix or fuji ixgpfast
capsule obtained the maximum score ( 3 ) .
the brazilian ionomer cements presented less microleakage than imported cements , although this difference was only significant ( p=0.003 ) among the encapsulated materials . |
7,133 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this manifestation , widely known as post - operative cognitive dysfunction ( pocd ) , is characterized by disordered thinking and impaired consciousness with later onset and fluctuating course [ 24 ] .
pocd , as mentioned above , is common in elderly patients , and probably has a pathogenesis similar to that of ad and may even evolve into ad .
unfortunately , it has been demonstrated that 41.4% of aged patients have pocd at hospital discharge .
leptin is synthesized and secreted by adipocytes , and has been recognized as having an important role in coordinating the peripheral and central signals , ultimately regulating food intake and body weight [ 811 ] . although the biological effects of leptin are thought to regulate eating behavior and energy expenditure , a prospective clinical study with 785 participants showed that higher circulating levels of leptin contribute to reduce ad incidence .
a preclinical study has shown that leptin can reduce pathology and improve memory in a transgenic mouse model of ad .
collectively , these findings indicate that leptin has unique therapeutic effects on cognitive dysfunction , which is the primary pathological feature of ad .
in addition to pocd , it is also characterized by cognitive dysfunction and shares similar pathogenesis with ad .
we hypothesized that leptin has prophylactic and therapeutic effects on pocd , and that the leptin signaling pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of pocd . a previous study by doherty et al
. indicated that leptin prevents hippocampal synaptic disruption and neuronal cell death induced by amyloid- ( a ) . a study by marwarha et al .
has shown that leptin treatment reversed the 27-hydroxycholesterol - induced increase in a and tau phosphorylation ( p - tau ) .
ad , a progressive neurodegenerative disease , is characterized by the accumulation of a peptide - containing neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles composed of p - tau . in this
regard , pocd is also characterized by abnormal deposition of a and p - tau .
these... | leptin plays a critical role in neuronal development and also promotes structural and functional activities in the central nervous system .
recent studies have demonstrated that leptin could produce therapeutic effects for cognitive impairments of patients with alzheimer s disease ( ad ) .
post - operative cognitive dysfunction ( pocd ) , defined as a significant dysfunction in cognitive performance for several weeks after surgery , probably has a pathogenesis similar to that of ad .
specifically , they are both characterized by cognitive impairment . in this regard
, we hypothesized that leptin probably has a therapeutic benefit of alleviating symptoms of patients with pocd , and the leptin signaling pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of pocd . |
7,134 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in the mid-1970s , acute myocardial infarction ( ami ) was identified as being the result of a ruptured atherosclerotic plaque , causing thrombosis and occlusion of the coronary artery .
randomized trials have indicated that primary percutaneous coronary intervention ( ppci ) during the early hours of ami offers certain advantages over tt [ 25 ] .
the major limitation of primary angioplasty as firstline therapy on a community basis is restricted availability of 24-hour cardiac catheterization laboratories staffed with skilled cardiologists .
most hospitals do not have facilities for 24 hour coronary angioplasty , and the large majority of patients with ami are admitting to a non - pci capable hospital .
tt is , however , the standard of care for patients with ami , because of its widespread availability and its efficacy for reduction of mortality [ 69 ] .
the ischemia grade system ( gi ) is an electrocardiographic classification of stemi based on st segment and qrs complex changes on baseline ecg .
grade1 : tall sharp t waves without st segment elevation ; gi2 : st segment elevation in > 2 contiguous leads without terminal qrs deformation ; and gi3 : st segment elevation with terminal qrs deformation in > 2 contiguous leads .
previous studies have shown that patients with gi3 on the presenting ecg have a worse prognosis [ 1114 ] , larger infarct size [ 11,1518 ] , less benefit from tt and less hibernation in the infarcted myocardium than patients with gi2 .
thus , fibrin - specific regimens should be used in patients with gi3 if there is no possibility for ppci . however , there is no study investigating relation between gi and the effect of fibrin - specific regimens .
our study is unique in the literature that compares fibrin and non - fibrin - specific drugs according to gi .
the purpose of the study was to evaluate whether the success of reperfusion can be predicted by gi and to consider the effects of tt according to types of tt , gi , and infarct localization .
in the current study , we enrolled... | backgroundthis study was aimed to determine whether the grade of ischemia can predict the success of reperfusion in patients treated with thrombolytic therapy ( tt ) for st elevation myocardial infarction ( stemi).material / methodswe enrolled 229 consecutive patients with diagnosis of stemi and receiving tt .
patients were divided into 2 groups
grade 2 ischemia ( gi2 ) and grade 3 ischemia ( gi3 ) according to initial electrocardiogram ( ecg ) .
as tt , fibrin - specific ( tissue plasminogen activator ( t - pa ) ) or non - fibrin - specific ( streptokinase ( skz ) ) regimens were used .
successful reperfusion was defined as > 50% resolution of the maximal st segment on 90-min ecg .
we tried to evaluate whether the grade of ischemia could predict the success of reperfusion and if there were any differences in terms of successful reperfusion between different thrombolytic regimens.resultsthe successful reperfusion rate was significantly higher in gi2 than gi3 ( 82.4% vs. 64.4% respectively , p=0.002 ) .
the success rate was lowest at anterior gi3 ( 55.8% ) .
although there was no significant difference between thrombolytic regimens in all groups ( p=0.77 ) , t - pa was superior to skz in anterior gi3 ( 63,6% vs. 30% , p=0.061 ) .
in addition , in multivariate analysis , gi and infarct localization were found as independent predictors for successful reperfusion with tt ( p=0.006 and p=0.042 , respectively).conclusionsin the current study , we found that gi2 is an independent predictor for successful reperfusion in stemi treated with tt .
fibrin specific regime should be preferred in anterior gi3 . |
7,135 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: endodontic irrigants should have , amongst other properties , a broad antimicrobial
spectrum of activity against anaerobic and facultative micro - organisms growing in
biofilms and a relative absence of toxicity against periapical tissues and oral
mucosa .
sodium hypochlorite ( naocl ) is recommended as the main root canal irrigant because of
its broad antimicrobial activity , the capacity to prevent formation of and dissolve the
smear layer , in association with chelating agents , and its ability to dissolve tissue
remnants .
however , naocl has
been shown to have a cytotoxic effect on vital tissue and can therefore elicit
inflammatory reactions if it reaches the periapex .
furthermore , naocl has been shown to cause a change in the force
required to fracture dentin , and a
reduction of the elastic modulus and flexural strength of dentin .
furthermore naocl corrodes protaper niti rotary ( dentsply / maillefer , baillagues ,
switzerland ) and carbon steel instruments , cause early fractures of protaper ( dentsply / maillefer )
instruments and , when heated ,
reduce resistance to cyclic fatigue of nickel - titanium files .
sterilox 's aquatine alpha electrolyte ( optident dental , ilkley , west
yorkshire , uk ) is a super - oxidized water that consists of a mixture of oxidizing
substances including hypochlorous acid ( hocl ) at a concentration of 144 mg / l , with a ph
of 5.0 - 6.5 and a redox potential of > 950 mv20 .
the manufacturer suggests that the
production of hocl in the sterilox dental system ( optident dental ) does not produce free
radical cl and that the available free chlorine in the solution is 200 ppm , that is
larger than the concentration reported in literature .
super - oxidized water has been suggested as an alternative to naocl , as it provides
efficient cleaning of root canal walls , and has been recommended for the disinfection of
endoscopes , dental unit water
lines and dental impression
materials .
the aim of this study was to compare the... | ideally root canal irrigants should have , amongst other properties , antimicrobial
action associated with a lack of toxicity against periapical tissues . sodium
hypochlorite ( naocl )
is a widely used root canal irrigant , however it has been shown
to have a cytotoxic effect on vital tissue and therefore it is prudent to investigate
alternative irrigants .
sterilox 's aquatine alpha electrolyte
belongs to the group of the super - oxidized waters ; it consists of a mixture of
oxidizing substances , and has been suggested to be used as root canal irrigant .
super - oxidized waters have been shown to provide efficient cleaning of root canal
walls , and have been proposed to be used for the disinfection of medical
equipment.objectiveto compare the antimicrobial action against enterococcus faecalis of naocl ,
optident sterilox electrolyte solution and sterilox 's aquatine
alpha electrolyte when used as irrigating solutions in a bovine
root canal model.methodologyroot sections were prepared and inoculated with e. faecalis jh2 - 2 .
after 10 days
of incubation the root canals were irrigated using one of three solutions ( naocl ,
optident sterilox electrolyte solution and sterilox 's aquatine
alpha electrolyte ) and subsequently sampled by grinding dentin
using drills .
the debris was placed in bhi broth and dilutions were plated onto
fresh agar plates to quantify growth.resultssodium hypochlorite was the only irrigant to eliminate all bacteria . when the
dilutions were made , although naocl was still statistically superior , sterilox 's
aquatine alpha electrolyte solution was superior to optident
sterilox electrolyte solution.conclusionunder the conditions of this study sterilox 's aquatine alpha
electrolyte appeared to have significantly more
antimicrobial action compared to the optident sterilox electrolyte
solution alone , however naocl was the only solution able to
consistently eradicate e. faecalis in the model . |
7,136 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | the chemical and physical properties of serpentine and amphibole asbestos are considered in the context of their interaction with tissue of the tracheobronchial tree and lungs . in vitro studies in cultures of several types
are evaluated and work with the erythrocyte hemolysis system is reviewed . although fibers of the two major mineral types differ substantially , it is likely they are modified by secretions and membranes of cells after inhalation to the respiratory tract .
investigations using virgin asbestos might not provide an accurate picture of events in vitro.imagesfigure 1.figure 2.figure 3.figure 4.figure 5.figure 6 . |
7,137 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pediatric cerebral aneurysms are rare . according to a recent review by rao et al . , these aneurysms constitute 2.9% of all cerebral aneurysms .
incidence of these aneurysms in pediatric patients is more in the posterior circulation than in the anterior , when compared to the aneurysms in adults .
lasjunias et al . , in a report on 20 pediatric aneurysm cases , suggested that these aneurysms must be the expression of various vessel wall dysfunctions , producing transient or permanent failure to repair a partial insult .
we present two case reports of non - giant aneurysms of the anterior circulation in the pediatric group , treated successfully by endovascular technique at our institute .
an 8-year - old female child presented with a complaint of persistent headache for 7 days ( grade i sub - arachnoid hemorrhage ( sah ) ( hunt and hess scale ) ) . on clinical examination
computerized tomography ( ct ) scan revealed fischer grade-3 sah in the prepontine cistern and right sylvian fissure .
pre - procedure routine detailed work was done along with special investigations including antineutrophilic antibody ( ana ) , antineutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody ( anca ) , and antiphospholipid antibody ( apla ) .
detailed screening and imaging were done to rule out any associated conditions , such as autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease ( adpkd ) , fibro muscular dysplasia , co - arctation of aorta , ehlers syndrome , and marfans syndrome .
digital subtraction angiography ( dsa ) showed the presence of a1saccular aneurysm on the right side [ figure 1 ab ] .
endovascular treatment was planned after analyzing the morphology of the aneurysm and the flow hemodynamics of the aneurysm .
high - risk informed consent was obtained from the parents after detailed explanation of the risks versus benefits of the treatment procedure .
case 1 : ( a ) computerized tomography ( ct ) scan shows subarachnoid hemorrhage ( sah ) ( arrow ) in the prepontine and sylvian fissures and ( b ) pre - procedure digital subtraction angiogram... | aneurysms in the pediatric age group are rare and have preponderance for the posterior circulation .
these aneurysms are more commonly large , giant , and complex .
we present two case reports of saccular aneurysms in pediatric patients who were treated successfully by endovascular technique . |
7,138 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids ( lcpufa ) including docosahexaenoic acid ( dha ) and arachidonic acid ( ara ) , are essential for normal growth , vision , neurodevelopment and overall health . in utero lcpufa accretion
occurs primarily during the last trimester of pregnancy , when maternal levels are high and growth and brain development are rapid .
premature infants born before this process is complete are relatively deficient in dha , the most variable of these essential lcpufas.(1 ) additionally , dha status in very low birth weight infants ( vlbws ) remains low due to inadequate fat stores , ineffective conversion from precursor fatty acids and a limited nutritional supply.(2 ) evidence demonstrates that lcpufa supplementation improves neurodevelopmental and visual outcomes in this high risk population.(315 ) new evidence is emerging to suggest that the benefits of dha supplementation extend beyond the brain . in vitro , animal model , and a few human studies demonstrate a role for improved lcpufa provision in prevention of diseases specific to premature infants , including bronchopulmonary dysplasia ( bpd)(11 , 1622 ) , necrotizing enterocolitis ( nec)(2327 ) , and retinopathy of prematurity ( rop).(2834 ) the purpose of this review article is to encourage further discussion about the recommended provision of dha specifically for premature infants and the need for further study of specific dose , timing , safety and benefits in this high risk population .
essential lcpufas are important components of the phospholipid bi - layer of cell membranes , contributing to structural integrity and function throughout the body . in vitro and animal studies
, they have highly specialized functional roles making them important for normal signal transduction , neurotransmission and neurogenesis . in tissues throughout the body ,
they are released from membranes by phospholipases for conversion to important hormones , eicosanoids , lipoxins and resolvins that mediate inflammation , immune function , platelet... | long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids ( lcpufa ) including docosahexaenoic acid ( dha ) , are essential for normal vision and neurodevelopment .
dha accretion in utero occurs primarily in the last trimester of pregnancy to support rapid growth and brain development .
premature infants , born before this process is complete , are relatively deficient in this essential fatty acid .
very low birth weight ( vlbw ) infants remain deficient for a long period of time due to ineffective conversion from precursor fatty acids , lower fat stores , and a limited nutritional provision of dha after birth .
in addition to long- term visual and neurodevelopmental risks , vlbw infants have significant morbidity and mortality from diseases specific to premature birth , including bronchopulmonary dysplasia ( bpd ) , necrotizing enterocolitis ( nec ) , and retinopathy of prematurity ( rop ) .
there is increasing evidence that dha has protective benefits against these disease states .
the aim of this article is to identify the unique needs of premature infants , review the current recommendations for lcpufa provision in infants , and discuss the caveats and innovative new ways to overcome the dha deficiency through postnatal supplementation , with the long term goal of improving morbidity and mortality in this at risk population . |
7,139 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the laser radiation produces many different effects depending on light - beam parameters as well as the tissues that are subjected to irradiation . despite documented therapeutic effect of low - level laser therapy ( lllt ) , there is still much controversy and scientific debate over its effectiveness [ 13 ] .
the variety of procedures and the inconclusive results of the conducted studies mobilized to search for the parameters of laser radiation , which both in vitro and in vivo will result in acceleration of cell proliferation and the expected therapeutic efficacy . laser radiation may affect individual cells only via the structures that absorb the radiation .
visible light photoreception ( 635 nm ) occurs at the level of mitochondria [ 2 , 4 ] .
consequently , electron transport , adenosine triphosphate nitric oxide release , blood flow , reactive oxygen species increase , and diverse signaling pathways are activated .
reports about this subject seem to confirm that the photoinducing electron transfer reactions may initiate the synthesis and conformational changes of proteins and may have an influence on dna and rna synthesis increase .
laser therapy has a universal application in the wound healing , especially nonhealing decubitals and burned wounds , and also in the treatment of ulcer - dependent microcirculation disorders such as diabetic foot . despite the proven therapeutic effect , there are still controversies about the mechanisms and nature of the interaction of laser radiation on living tissue .
the literature analysis about this problem ( this topic ) demonstrates that the conducted studies were focused on keratinocytes and fibroblasts involved in tissue healing and only in a little extent on endothelial cells .
, it plays a fundamental role in many pathological processes including hypertension , diabetes , or inflammatory process .
it should be underlined that growth factors produced by endothelial cells ( ecs ) take a main part in tissue healing and angiogenesis process . wound healing is a... | growth factors as vascular endothelial growth factor ( vegf ) , produced by the endothelial cells , take an essential part in pathological and physiological angiogenesis .
the possibility of angiogenesis modulation by application of laser radiation may contribute to the improvement of its use in this process .
thus , the aim of the study was to investigate the influence of low - level laser therapy ( lllt ) on the proliferation of endothelial cells , secretion of vegf - a and presence of soluble vegf receptors ( svegfr-1 and svegfr-2 ) in the medium after in vitro culture .
isolated human umbilical vein endothelial cells ( huvecs ) were irradiated using a diode laser at a wavelength of 635 nm and power density of 1,875 mw / cm2 .
depending on radiation energy density , the experiment was conducted in four groups : i 0 j / cm2 ( control group ) , ii 2 j / cm2 , iii 4 j / cm2 , and iv 8 j / cm2 . the use of laser radiation wavelength of 635 nm , was associated with a statistically significant increase in proliferation of endothelial cells ( p = 0.0041 ) . moreover , at 635-nm wavelength , all doses of radiation significantly reduced the concentration of svegfr-1 ( p = 0.0197 ) . |
7,140 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the extraction of impacted third molars , which may be prophylactic or therapeutic , is one of the most frequently performed operative procedures in oral and maxillofacial surgery.12 surgical extraction of impacted third molars inevitably results in trauma to soft and hard tissues ; consequently , significant pain , swelling , and trismus may be experienced by patients who undergo such extractions.34 frequently , they experience significant postoperative distress and a decline in quality of life ( qol).567 the undesirable consequences of impacted mandibular third molar surgery on the patients ' postoperative qol have been reported to show a 3-fold increase in patients who experience pain , swelling , or trismus alone or in combinations , compared to those who had none of these symptoms.7 various techniques intended to mitigate the detrimental effects of third molar surgery have been proposed , including the use of mouth washes , drains , specific suture techniques , steroids , ice packs , laser , analgesics , and drains , among others.8 the administration of corticosteroids such as dexamethasone and prednisolone considerably reduces the manifestations of inflammation such as swelling , redness , warmth , and tenderness that are frequently observed at the operative site.7 steroids may be administered along with nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs and this combination has been found to have a distinct effect in reducing the severity of postoperative pain , swelling , and trismus.1491011 prednisolone , which is a synthetic analog of cortisol , has a half - life of 2.13.5 h. it is about 4 times as potent as hydrocortisone , has duration of action of 1836 h and quite importantly , a low mineralocorticoid activity.1213 prednisolone has a long record of efficacy and safety.1214 the various routes of administration have been described , which include oral , intramuscular , intravenous , and submucosal routes.1315 majid and mahmood,16 in a randomized controlled clinical trial where dexamethasone was administered... | background : the aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of preoperatively administered submucosal and oral prednisolone on postoperative pain , facial swelling , and trismus following third molar surgery.patients and methods : this was a randomized controlled trial in which subjects were randomly distributed into three groups .
group a consisted of subjects who received 40 mg oral prednisolone ; group b consisted of subjects who received 40 mg submucosal injection of prednisolone while group c consisted of subjects who did not receive prednisolone .
each group had 62 subjects .
measurements for facial width / facial swelling , pain , and mouth opening were recorded preoperatively and postoperatively .
the postoperative evaluation points were postoperative days 1 , 3 , and 7 .
these measurements were compared with the preoperative values both within and among the groups.results:most of the subjects were in their third decade of life . a considerable increase in the mean postoperative values for pain , facial width and trismus was observed .
notably , subjects who did not receive prednisolone showed comparatively higher values for the measured parameters throughout the postoperative evaluation period .
subjects who received submucosal injection of prednisolone showed overall lower values compared to those who received oral prednisolone.conclusion:the results of this study indicate that the administration of prednisolone has a significantly beneficial effect in ameliorating the postoperative sequelae of the third molar surgery .
in addition , the effect of submucosally injected prednisolone is comparable to the orally administered prednisolone ; indeed it shows superiority to the latter in a number of dimensions .
submucosal injection of prednisolone offers a simple , effective , easy , safe , and minimally invasive option to existing therapeutic methods of reducing these postoperative sequelae . |
7,141 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: penaeid prawns are important subjects of mariculture and coastal fisheries activities throughout the tropics and subtropics [ 13 ] .
traditionally , prawn farms located near the coast used directly coastal seawater to rear the prawns without additional processes .
shrimp culture is therefore potentially affected by anthropogenic activities including metal contamination . specifically in coastal mexican waters ,
a great number of basic metal industries represent the mainly heavy metal ( cadmium , lead , nickel , chromium , etc . ) source [ 49 ] .
penaeid prawns have revealed great capacity to accumulate and take up metals from solution , either essential or not essential elements and yet survive in these polluted environments [ 1014 ] .
thus , it is of great concern to investigate detoxificatory processes involved in prawns exposed to metals .
it is well known that the induction of metallothionein which is a cystein - rich protein and has detoxifying properties , occurs in aquatic invertebrates after in situ or laboratory metal exposure ( for review see amiard et al . and
, physiological markers reflecting the energetics of an organism may contribute to the understanding of the mode of the toxicant [ 1618 ] .
the metabolic cost hypothesis suggests that toxic stress induces metabolic changes which may lead to a depletion of its energy reserves resulting in adverse effects on growth and reproduction .
comprehension of the mechanisms related to the sublethal effects caused by toxic metals upon shrimp metabolism would help to develop sensitive and diagnostic tools ( biomarkers ) with a predictable capacity in assessing the toxic effects , thus contributing to better coastal seawater management and sustainable aquaculture .
this study is part of a wider investigation of the regulation and accumulation of the trace metals nickel and lead in a penaeid prawn penaeus vannamei ; metals previously detected in coastal mexican waters [ 48 ] .
nickel has occasionally been interpreted as an essential metal [ 21 , 22 ]... | this study analyzed the changes in metallothionein - like proteins ( mtlps ) and energy reserves ( ers ) in hepatopancreas and abdominal muscle of the white prawn penaeus vannamei .
realistic metal concentration exposure for 10 days to ni and pb in solution revealed that juvenile prawns partially induce mtlp in hepatopancreas after pb exposure .
ni was distributed equally between soluble and insoluble fractions , while pb was present only in the insoluble fraction , suggesting different detoxification strategy .
no changes in lipids and glycogen concentration were detected under these experimental conditions in both tissues analyzed .
mtlp could not be considered as a suitable indicator for lead exposure in hepatopancreas . |
7,142 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the multiple myeloma is a hematological malignancy characterized by the development of a clone of plasma tumor invading hematopoietic marrow . in its usual form , it involves bone marrow plasma cell infiltration , a monoclonal immunoglobulin in blood and/or urine , and bone involvement .
meningeal localization of myeloma is a rare presentation and poor prognosis 14 . a high myeloma burden , stage iii disease , high labeling index , circulating plasma cells in the peripheral blood , and iga or igd m protein were the most frequent clinical features of these patients .
we report a case of a patient who developed meningeal involvement 3 months after achieving complete remission after autologous stem cell through multiple myeloma revealed by a nasopharyngeal mass and discuss the presumed mechanism of meningeal involvement .
we also speculate that meningeal involvement may occur also in cases with a low myeloma mass and with a disease apparently well controlled by high - dose therapy 4,5 , but who had initially an infiltration from contiguous structures when lytic lesions erode skull and dura mater 6 .
we report a case of a 41-year - old man who was admitted in our institution for multiple igg kappa myeloma iss3 score , in a context of general alteration with 9 kg weight loss , dysphagia to solids , a left laryngeal immobility . the physical examination found a large mass in the nasopharyngeal .
brain magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) rating extensive homogeneous cell mass developed at the expense of nasopharyngeal extending into the oropharynx , invading the soft parts of the cranio - spinal shower hinge , part of the skull base , the predominant left temporal fossae , large sphenoid wings being crossed by the tumor process ( fig.1 ) .
the microscopic examination of the tumor 's biopsy showed a fragment consisting of nasopharyngeal cohesive sheets of small cells overwritten .
immunohistochemistry noted of cd145 + cells , cd20 , cd3 , cd138 + , monotypic lambda with an estimated of 90% proliferation index .
the... | key clinical messagea patient with multiple myeloma with a mass in the nasopharyngeal was diagnosed .
he received melphalan autograft and radiotherapy , and obtained complete remission .
he relapsed 3 months later , with meningeal involvement and without systemic relapse .
he received intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy , without neurological improvement and died 4 weeks after relapse . |
7,143 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the flash electroretinogram ( erg ) provides an excellent noninvasive means to assess retinal function .
the largest feature of this response is the b - wave , which follows the initial negative a - wave .
the b - wave corresponds to the granit 's pii component and is believed to be generated by the activity of on - bipolar cells .
however , a number of studies have suggested that the pii component may arise from several sources , thus complicating the interpretation of b - wave loss in studies of retinal disease . potential contributors to the pii include rod and cone bipolar cell responses , with the later showing faster rise and decay kinetics . on- and off - responses can also be visualized in erg responses from primates , rabbits , cats , and guinea pigs [ 47 ] .
the responses of on- and off - bipolar cells may have distinct temporal signatures in the b - wave as on - bipolar cells have been shown to be more sustained compared with their off - counterparts in turtle retina .
more recent studies suggest that bipolar cells appear to segregate into those producing transient and sustained responses [ 9 , 10 ] .
have attributed sustained and transient off - bipolar cell responses to differences in ionotropic glutamate receptors subtypes : kainate and ampa receptors on sustained and transient off - bipolar cells , respectively .
the temporal characteristics of bipolar cell responses are also thought to be modified by inhibitory processes [ 1113 ] .
a number of studies have shown that inhibition of glycine and gaba receptors can modify bipolar cell output [ 14 , 15 ] .
for example , inhibition of gabac receptors produces more sustained on bipolar cell responses [ 1618 ] as well as smaller and slower erg b - wave [ 17 , 19 , 20 ] .
more recently , herrmann and coworkers showed that rod bipolar cell and the dark - adapted b - wave dynamic range in mice are extended by gabac - mediated sustained chloride current . whether a similar effect is seen in the rat erg has yet to be defined .
first , the putative pii... | the most dominant feature of the electroretinogram , the b - wave , is thought to reflect on - bipolar cell responses .
however , a number of studies suggest that the b - wave is made up of several components .
we consider the composition of the rat b - wave by subtracting corneal negative components obtained using intravitreal application of pharmacological agents to remove postreceptoral responses . by analyzing the intensity - response characteristic of the pii across a range of fixed times during and after a light step , we find that the rat isolated pii has 2 components .
the first has fast rise and decay characteristics with a low sensitivity to light .
gabac - mediated inhibitory pathways enhance this transient - on component to manifest increased and deceased sensitivity to light at shorter ( < 160 ms ) and longer times , respectively .
the second component has slower temporal characteristics but is more sensitive to light .
gabac - mediated inhibition enhances this sustained - on component but has little effect on its sensitivity to light .
after stimulus offset , both transient and sustained components return to baseline , and a long latency sustained positive component becomes apparent .
the light sensitivities of transient - on and sustained - off components are consistent with activity arising from cone on- and off - bipolar cells , whereas the sustained - on component is likely to arise from rod bipolar cells . |
7,144 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: cat scratch disease ( csd ) is a self - limiting disease in immunocompetent patients .
other bartonella spp . known to cause systemic and ocular manifestation are bartonella quintana , bartonella grahamii , and bartonella elizabethae.1,2 csd
is transmitted to humans through a cat scratch , cat bite , cat saliva , or cat flea bite .
csd may present in a wide spectrum of systemic manifestations , including endocarditis , hepatitis , encephalopathy , meningitis , transverse myelitis , hemolytic anemia , glomerulonephritis , and osteomyelitis . in immunocompromised patients ,
bartonella infection can cause a vasoproliferative response as seen in bacillary angiomatosis which resembles kaposi s sarcoma histologically.3,4 rarely , csd with ocular bartonellosis manifests as parinaud s oculoglandular conjunctivitis and intraocular inflammation ( uveitis ) in the form of neuroretinitis or retinochoroiditis .
neuroretinitis was previously described as leber s idiopathic stellate neuroretinitis in 1916.5 it is characterized by optic disc swelling with partial or complete macular star,5 and occurs in 1%2% of patients with csd.6 neuroretinitis in association with serologic evidence of bartonella infection was documented in 1994.79 serologic tests for bartonella became readily available in recent years and are a means of establishing csd diagnosis .
diagnosis of csd is mainly by clinical presentation and is confirmed with positive serologic analysis for bartonella .
an increase in immunoglobulin ( ig ) m titer with a significant increase in igg antibodies titer can be considered an acute bartonella infection.10 the aim of this retrospective interventional case series is to describe features of neuroretinitis and serologic verification of b. henselae for ocular bartonellosis .
this is a retrospective interventional case series of four patients who presented in the ophthalmology clinic at the hospital universiti sains malaysia , kubang kerian , malaysia from june 2012 to march 2013 .
all four patients had a history of contact... | we report a case series of neuroretinitis in ocular bartonellosis and describe the serologic verification for bartonella henselae .
this is a retrospective interventional case series of four patients who presented in the ophthalmology clinic of hospital universiti sains malaysia from june 2012 to march 2013 .
all four patients had a history of contact with cats and had fever prior to ocular symptoms .
each patient presented with neuroretinitis characterized by optic disc swelling with macular star .
serology analysis showed strongly positive for b. henselae in all of the patients .
all patients were treated with oral azithromycin ( except case 4 , who was treated with oral doxycycline ) , and two patients ( case 1 and case 3 ) had poor vision at initial presentation that warranted the use of oral prednisolone .
all patients showed a good visual outcome except case 3 .
vision - threatening ocular manifestation of cat scratch disease can be improved with systemic antibiotics and steroids . |
7,145 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: disposing the 3d structure of small drug - like molecules can be critical for several computational approaches such as in silico screening ( 1,2 ) , either ligand - based ( 35 ) or receptor structure - based ( 69 ) employed prior to or to complement experimental screening for hit identification , lead optimization or chemical biology purposes .
in addition , for some of the methods , like rigid ligand docking or 3d ligand - based screening , a multiple conformer ensemble is required .
chemical compounds are often distributed by chemical vendors in 1d smiles ( simplified molecular input line entry system ) , 1d cansmiles ( canonical smiles ) ( 10 ) or in 2d sdf ( 11 ) ( structure data file ) formats .
generating an accurate 3d structure for a small chemical compound is a complex task ( 12 ) .
different techniques using rule - based or data - based methods , building linker regions on pre - generated fragments or stochastic procedures up to quantum mechanical methods ( 12,13 ) have been developed .
numerous studies have been carried out to compare the existing approaches and to analyze the small molecule conformations experimentally observed ( 14,15 ) .
they revealed that for a satisfactory sampling of the conformational space , the most important parameters to be optimized are the energy window with respect to the global minimum and the root mean square deviation ( rsmd ) value .
several well established commercial packages such as corina ( corina molecular networks , gmbh computerchemie langemarckplatz 1 , erlangen , germany , 2000 ) , omega , catalyst ( 14 ) or med-3dmc ( 16 ) generate multiple ensemble conformations of small molecules .
in addition , several utilities like zinc ( 17 ) , faf - drugs ( 18 ) or pubchem ( 18 ) take advantage of commercial software to propose pregenerated collections of compounds in 3d . yet ,
very few free tools are available for a single or multiple conformation generation . for instance , balloon ( 13 ) using a multi - objective genetic algorithm approach and multiconf - dock... | frog is a web tool dedicated to small compound 3d generation . here
we present the new version , frog2 , which allows the generation of conformation ensembles of small molecules starting from either 1d , 2d or 3d description of the compounds . from a compound description in one of the smiles , sdf or mol2 formats
, the server will return an ensemble of diverse conformers generated using a two stage monte carlo approach in the dihedral space . when starting from 1d or 2d description of compounds , frog2 is capable to detect the sites of ambiguous stereoisomery , and thus to sample different stereoisomers .
frog2 also embeds new energy minimization and ring generation facilities that solve the problem of some missing cycle structures in the frog1 ring library . finally , the optimized generator of conformation ensembles in frog2 results in a gain of computational time permitting frog2 to be up to 20 times faster that frog1 , while producing satisfactory conformations in terms of structural quality and conformational diversity . the high speed and the good quality of generated conformational ensembles
makes it possible the treatment of larger compound collections using frog2 .
the server and documentation are freely available at http://bioserv.rpbs.univ-paris-diderot.fr/frog2 . |
7,146 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | highly chemoselective
direct reduction of primary , secondary , and
tertiary amides to alcohols using smi2/amine / h2o is reported .
the reaction proceeds with c
n bond cleavage
in the carbinolamine intermediate , shows excellent functional group
tolerance , and delivers the alcohol products in very high yields .
the expected c o cleavage products are not formed under the
reaction conditions . the observed reactivity is opposite to the electrophilicity
of polar carbonyl groups resulting from the nx
*c = o ( x = o , n ) conjugation .
mechanistic
studies suggest that coordination of sm to the carbonyl and then to
lewis basic nitrogen in the tetrahedral intermediate facilitate electron
transfer and control the selectivity of the c
n / c o
cleavage .
notably , the method provides direct access to acyl - type
radicals from unactivated amides under mild electron transfer conditions . |
7,147 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: screening with mammography has been shown to reduce mortality from breast cancer [ 1 , 2 ] . however , the sensitivity to non - palpable cancer of screening mammography in radiographically dense - breasted women is as low as 3048% .
extremely dense - breasted women have an 18-fold increase in interval cancer found between annual mammograms , compared with fatty - breasted women . magnetic resonance imaging ( mri )
has been demonstrated to be , and recommended as , an efficacious adjunct to mammography for very high - risk , dense - breasted women [ 5 , 6 ] .
three limitations to mri screening for breast cancer are cost , intravenous injection of gadolinium - containing contrast medium , and lower specificity of mri compared with mammography with increased false positive callbacks and biopsies . for radiographically dense - breasted women , whole - breast ultrasound as an adjunct to screening mammography has shown promise .
berg et al . increased cancer discovery 42% by adding handheld whole - breast ultrasound performed by radiologists .
kelly et al . used an automated whole - breast ultrasound ( awbu ) device capturing a cin loop of 2d breast images .
this blinded study of mostly dense - breasted women showed a 100% increase in cancer detection , and a 200% increase in discovery of invasive cancers 1 cm or less , compared with mammograms alone .
these cin loops were recorded and are available for reader trials similar to those performed for comparison of screening mammography with and without computer - aided detection ( cad ) . for awbu to be a useful adjunct to screening mammography for dense - breasted women , interpretation of examinations must be shown as beneficial , when performed by community radiologists .
this paper evaluates the performance of such radiologists in detection before and after awbu is added to a test set of screening mammograms of radiographically dense - breasted women .
mammograms standard cranio - caudal ( cc ) and medio - lateral oblique ( mlo ) views of each breast were... | objectiveradiologist reader performance for breast cancer detection using mammography plus automated whole - breast ultrasound ( awbu ) was compared with mammography alone.methodsscreenings for non - palpable breast malignancies in women with radiographically dense breasts with contemporaneous mammograms and awbu were reviewed by 12 radiologists blinded to the diagnoses ; half the studies were abnormal .
readers first reviewed the 102 mammograms .
the american college of radiology ( acr ) breast imaging reporting and data system ( birads ) and digital mammographic imaging screening trial ( dmist ) likelihood ratings were recorded with location information for identified abnormalities .
readers then reviewed the mammograms and awbu with knowledge of previous mammogram - only evaluation .
we compared reader performance across screening techniques using absolute callback , areas under the curve ( auc ) , and figure of merit ( fom).resultstrue positivity of cancer detection increased 63% , with only a 4% decrease in true negativity .
reader - averaged auc was higher for mammography plus awbu compared with mammography alone by birads ( 0.808 versus 0.701 ) and likelihood scores ( 0.810 versus 0.703 ) .
similarly , fom was higher for mammography plus awbu compared with mammography alone by birads ( 0.786 versus 0.613 ) and likelihood scores ( 0.791 versus 0.614).conclusionadding awbu to mammography improved callback rates , accuracy of breast cancer detection , and confidence in callbacks for dense - breasted women . |
7,148 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: uveitis , especially noninfectious uveitis , is more common in women than in men , in most large surveys , presumably because of the greater frequency of autoimmune diseases in women .
sex - determined biological variations in type or intensity of response to infections may exist , just as they appear to exist in noninfectious and autoimmune disorders .
if anything , the sex differences in infectious uveitis are likely to be greater than in autoimmune disorders because exposure to infections involves behavioral and cultural issues not encountered with the other uveitides .
differences in sexual behaviors between men and women would predict that uveitis associated with sexually transmissible diseases such as hiv and syphilis would be even more likely to show gender disparities than infections transmitted through environmental and occupational exposures .
monogamy and strict adherence to ideals of chastity and faithfulness in some cultures are important social factors that would likely reduce the prevalence of sexually transmitted infectious diseases in women
. examples that would increase risk of infection among women are sex work and heterosexual transmission from bisexual or promiscuous male partners .
greater exposure increases the risk of infectious uveitis , even though uveitis typically arises in only a small percentage of infected individuals .
it is unknown whether men or women would have greater susceptibility on a biological basis to uveitis associated with infectious diseases . in general , men seem to be more susceptible to infections in multiple species .
the development of uveitis may depend on other factors that would skew prevalence toward one sex or the other .
for nonsexually transmitted types of infectious uveitis , the difference between male and female prevalence seems to be small indicating that large hormonal influences are unlikely . for sexually transmitted diseases ,
behavioral factors are likely to overshadow any biological effects related to sex - specific gene expression... | current data permit only speculations regarding sex differences in the prevalence of infectious uveitis between women and men because uveitis case surveys do not uniformly report gender data .
differences in prevalence that are reported in the literature could relate to simple differences in the number of women and men at risk for infection or to biological differences between men and women .
compared to other types of uveitis , infectious uveitis may be directly related to occupational exposures or sexual behaviors , which differ between women and men , and may mask actual biological differences in susceptibility to ocular manifestations of the infection and its prognosis . in infectious uveitis
for which there is no element of sexual transmission and data is available , prevalence of ocular disease is roughly equal between women and men .
women also have a unique relationship with infectious uveitis in their role as mothers .
vertical transmission of infections such as herpes simplex , toxoplasmosis , and cytomegalovirus can produce severe chorioretinitis in neonates . |
7,149 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the incidence of malignant melanoma in fair - skinned patients has increased dramatically in most parts of the world over the past few decades . because the prognosis of melanoma depends almost entirely on tumor thickness , early detection of thin melanoma is important for the survival of patients [ 1 , 2 ] .
the diagnostic accuracy of the clinical examination of pigmented skin lesions , however , is still rather poor .
literature results arise the evidence that the ability of general practitioners to early diagnose cmm with the naked eye is very low ; the ability of dermatologists to early diagnose cmm with the naked eye ranges from 50% to 75% ; there is a high rate of false positive ( causing unneeded surgical excision ) . in the last decade
dermoscopy is a noninvasive technique that enables the clinician to perform direct microscopic examination of diagnostic features , not seen by the naked eye , in pigmented skin lesions .
this technique is more accurate than naked eye examination for the diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma , in suspicious skin lesions when performed in the clinical setting .
several rather successful computer programs have been implemented to the aim of an automatic analysis of melanocytic lesions and their discrimination between naevi and melanomas ( see , e.g. , [ 48 ] ; see also [ 9 , 10 ] for a comparison between automatic and human performance ) .
most of them keep into account the traditional abcde parameters used by dermatologists : asymmetry ( of boundary , texture , and color ) , boundary ( irregularity and dishomogeneity ) , color ( presence of several colors ) , dimension , and evolution .
in particular , asymmetry is generally based on quantitative comparison of the two parts into which a lesion image is split by its principal axes . here
we have developed a new method for comparing in a qualitative , yet precise way the two parts of a lesion at the sides of a splitting line .
the mathematical tool for comparison is the theory of size functions , applied to three features... | size functions and support vector machines are used to implement a new automatic classifier of melanocytic lesions .
this is mainly based on a qualitative assessment of asymmetry , performed by halving images by several lines through the center of mass , and comparing the two halves in terms of color , mass distribution , and boundary .
the program is used , at clinical level , with two thresholds , so that comparison of the two outputs produces a report of low - middle - high risk .
experimental results on 977 images , with cross - validation , are reported . |
7,150 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in recent years , nursing staff shortages have become a major challenge for health care systems around the world , including iran . in 2008 , iranian hospitals needed approximately 220,000 nurses ; nonetheless , there were just about 90,000 nurses .
this shortage is related to decreased satisfaction among nurses and posed a potential threat to the quality of patient care . in the study which was conducted in 12 countries in europe and the usa ,
the range of nurses burnout was from 10% in the netherlands to 78% in greece , job dissatisfaction was from 11% in the netherlands to 56% in greece , and intention to leave was from 14% in the usa to 49% in finland and greece .
nursing shortages are a symptom of inadequate policies on recruitment and retention of nurses in the world .
also , in a nationwide study , iranian nurses reported an average level of job satisfaction .
another important challenge of iranian health care system is poor quality of patient care , which is influenced strongly by nurses motivation .
nurses are the main group of the human resources in the health care and the quality of health care is highly dependent on an adequate recruit and supply of qualified and motivated nursing personnel .
motivation is an important factor that influences nurses job satisfaction and their intention to work .
therefore , understanding nurses motivators can enhance job satisfaction , quality of care , and productivity .
identifying nurses motivators can help nurse mangers to find a way to motivate nursing staffs .
but the focus of previous studies has been mainly on the association of job motivation with different variables such as evaluation outcomes , psychiatric nurses anger , job satisfaction , innovation , and individual and organizational factors . in general ,
therefore , psychologists have extensively studied about motivation and have provided theories about the reasons for motivation .
motivation is defined as a process responsible for making the efforts strong , directed , and continuous to achieve... | background : one of the most important challenges of iranian health care system is quality of care , and it is assumed that motivated nurses are more ready to provide better care .
there are limited studies investigating iranian nurses motivations ; however , factors which motivate them have not been studied yet . identifying the motivating factors
enables nurse managers to inspire nurses for continuous quality improvement .
the aim of this study was to identify motivating factors for iranian hospital nurses.materials and methods : this is a cross - sectional descriptive study in which 310 nurses working at 14 hospitals of tehran university of medical sciences were selected by proportionate stratified random sampling .
data were collected in 2010 by a researcher - developed questionnaire .
descriptive statistics and independent t - test , analysis of variance , tukey post - hoc test , chi - square and fisher 's exact test were used for statistical analysis by statistical package for social sciences ( spss ) version 16.results:the mean score of motivation was 90.53 10.76 ( range : 59121 ) .
four motivating factors including career development ( 22.63 5.66 ) , job characteristics ( 34.29 4 ) ,
job authority ( 18.48 2.79 ) , and recognition ( 15.12 2.5 ) were recognized .
the least mean of the motivation score , considering the number of items , was 3.23 for career development , while the highest mean was 3.81 for job characteristics.conclusions:the findings showed that motivation of nurses was at a medium level , which calls for improvement .
the factors that have the greatest potential to motivate nurses were identified in this study and they can help managers to achieve the goal of continuous quality improvement . |
7,151 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: urodynamic testing has greatly improved our diagnostic capabilities for patients with complex neurogenic bladder dysfunction . however , despite years of refinements in technical standards and recommendations , urodynamics require experience - based individual interpretation and lack established sensitivity and specificity data .
detrusor external sphincter dyssynergia ( desd ) is defined as : a detrusor contraction concurrent with an involuntary contraction of the urethral and/or periurethral striated muscle in a patient with a known neurologic condition .
diagnosis is made by a combination of a clinical history of a known or potential upper tract lesion , increase in visual or audible electromyography ( wire or patch ) , fluoroscopic visualization of a dilated bladder neck and proximal urethra to the external urethral sphincter ( eus ) , or a urethral pressure profile with interruption of flow ( when present ) with increased detrusor pressure during interruption .
most urodynamic centers in the united states employ patch electrodes rather than needles for electromyography .
the international continence society ( ics ) has published statements in order to standardize reporting of many components of urodynamic results and technique [ 2 , 3 ] .
certain parameters for diagnosis of desd have been noted , such as an electromyography ( emg ) recording minimum of 20 khz , and the suggestion that quantitative measurement may be supplemented by imaging ( videourodynamics ) .
however , standard methodology and recommendations such as the type of needle and needle versus surface patch electrodes for the recording of external sphincter activity has not been published .
the importance of each diagnostic test or parameter is left to the individual physician and published studies vary widely in emg technique and reporting . some of the discordance between variables is intuitive ; for example , a closed bladder neck on voiding cystourethrography ( vcug ) prohibits visualization of the external urethral sphincter . in... | introduction .
the diagnosis of detrusor - external sphincter dyssynergia ( desd ) is a clinically relevant finding during urodynamic testing .
however , there is no consensus regarding diagnostic specifics of electromyography ( emg ) or voiding cystourethrography ( vcug ) .
we evaluated the concordance of the two modalities most commonly used in clinical practice for the diagnosis of desd .
methods .
patients were prospectively evaluated by a single urodynamicist at an academic center and retrospectively re - evaluated by an independent urodynamicist for agreement .
desd was determined by increased patch emg activity or a dilated bladder neck / proximal urethra on vcug during detrusor contraction .
minimal acceptable criterion for agreement was set at 70% .
results .
forty - six patients were diagnosed with desd with both modalities available .
of these 46 patients , 25 were diagnosed by both tests , 11 by vcug alone and 10 by patch emg alone .
binomial testing demonstrated the proportion of agreement was 54% ( 95% ci 39% to 68% ) .
conclusion .
we found significant disagreement between the two modalities , similar to previously reported findings using needle emg , and we expand the applicability of our data to the majority of clinicians who use patch emg electrodes .
this further supports the idea that the combined use of emg and vcug for diagnosis can identify more cases of desd than either modality alone . |
7,152 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: with the widespread use of laparoscopy in the 1990 's , many patients with heartburn and sequelae from gastroesophageal reflux disease ( gerd ) are undergoing repair of their hiatal hernias .
although there is a greater than 85% success rate , complications and failures occur following surgery ( table 1 ) .
one of the major concerns during the operative procedure is safe placement of a dilator or bougie .
many times the passage of the bougie is not performed by the operating surgeon but by a surrogate , like the anesthesiologist .
it is ironic that most surgeons are not concerned by the anesthesiologist placing an orogastric tube for intraoperative gastric decompression and rarely is this 18f tube a cause of a complication , like perforation . with this in mind
, a dual tube system was developed to decrease the incidence of esophageal perforation and allow safe dilator placement .
the first portion of the system is a standard 18f single lumen levine - type tube .
the length is marked to assist placing the tip of the tube through the mouth into the stomach .
it is extended with a screw cap to double the length and allow easy threading of the bougie over the levine tube .
the second portion of the system is a clear dilator measuring 48f or 58f where the tip is bored out to allow passage of an 18f tube .
it has marks indicating distance from the tip to guide the operator and surgeon while advancing the bougie down the esophagus and into the stomach .
the surgeon using the laparoscope should observe the dilator pass into the stomach as the operator indicates the length of bougie passed .
the surgeon may need to grasp the stomach as the bougie reaches the gastroesophageal junction .
the bougie can be pulled back or readvanced , as needed , during the hiatal hernia repair as sutures are placed or as the wrap is pulled behind the esophagus .
the 18f orogastric tube has a dual purpose to suction out the stomach and to act as a guide for the dilator to be passed directly into the stomach ( figure 1 ) . at the... | the increased use of laparoscopy for treatment of reflux esophagitis has been associated with a 1 - 8% complication rate .
perforation of the esophagus from bougie placement , wrap breakdown or too tight a wrap are some of the complications seen from this surgery .
an esophageal dilator system was developed to overcome these problems .
thirty patients had an esophageal dilator system used whereby a 48f or 58f dilator was placed over a 18f orogastric tube .
intraoperative gastroscopy documented a properly created wrap .
there were no esophageal perforations or morbidity associated with the dilator . |
7,153 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: an epileptic seizure is defined as a transient symptom of abnormal excessive or synchronous firing of some or many of the brain s cells , or neurons .
the outward effect can be as dramatic as convulsions with wild thrashing movements ( tonic - clonic seizure ) or as mild as a brief loss of awareness ( absence seizure ) .
sometimes seizures consist of repeated full body slumps , with the person simply losing body control and crashing to the ground .
it has been found that initial , thoughtfully chosen medication can make almost 50 percent of patients seizure - free for extended periods of time . if an initial drug fails , another well - chosen drug may make an additional 14 percent of patients seizure - free .
if that drug fails , too , then the likelihood of rendering someone with epilepsy seizure - free is poor . more than 30 percent of patients with epilepsy will not have seizure control even with the best available medications . despite the introduction of many new anticonvulsant medications , these figures have remained consistent over time . working with families
whose children had epilepsy , we realized that there were no books written for parents to help them cope . to fill the void , my colleague , eileen vining , m.d . , my coordinator / counselor , diana pillas , and i decided to team up to write one .
the result was seizures and epilepsy in childhood : a guide for parents,3 published by the johns hopkins press in 1993 .
it contained three pages on the ketogenic diet . sensing a need for a separate book that focused solely on the diet , the dietitian millicent kelly and i collaborated with my daughter , jennifer freeman , a freelance writer , to write the epilepsy diet treatment : an introduction to the ketogenic diet , a shorter book specifically about the ketogenic diet .
it was 1993 , and charlie abrahams , the two - year - old son of jim abrahams , the hollywood producer of airplane and naked gun , continued to suffer many uncontrollable drop seizures each day , despite extensive medical... | editor s note : epilepsy and seizures affect nearly 3 million americans of all ages .
the incidence is greater in african - americans and in socially disadvantaged populations , and about 200,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed each year . despite these alarming figures , no magic pill exists to eliminate convulsions . while drugs work for some , others find them ineffective .
what seems to work just as well , if not better , especially in children , is a relatively unknown , high - fat diet .
the author , john m. freeman , m.d .
, one of the nation s leading advocates for its use , writes about the evolution of the diet and its struggle for acceptance . |
7,154 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: during a first step ( november 2009february 2010 ) , seroprevalence rates for a(h1n1)pdm09 virus were assessed in 120 breeding pigs ( > 4 years old ) from 57 farms .
blood was obtained from randomly selected pigs at the only slaughterhouse on the island , where pigs are held for <3 hours .
we screened the samples for antibodies to influenza a viruses by using the i d screen antibody influenza a kit ( id.vet , montpellier , france ) , and titers were determined by using hemagglutination - inhibition ( hi ) assays ( 5 ) against all classical swine influenza viruses and a(h1n1)pdm09 virus ( table 1 ) .
ninety - eight ( 81.7% ; 95% ci 74.7%88.5% ) of the 120 serum samples were positive for a(h1n1)pdm09 virus ( hi titers > 20 ) ; the range of positive titers was 40640 , and 54.2% of the samples expressed high hi titers ( 160640 ) .
of the 98 serum samples , 5 reacted at low titer and with only 1 european a ( h1n1 ) swine virus ( titer < 20 ) , i.e. , > 4 dilutions lower than for a(h1n1)pdm09 virus , indicating cross reactivity ( 6 ) .
thus , pigs from 47 ( 82.4% ) of 57 tested farms had been infected by a(h1n1)pdm09 virus ; the seroprevalence rate was 81%100% for pigs on 79.0% of the farms .
farms with affected pigs were located throughout the island ( figure ) . * hi , hemagglutination inhibition .
hi tests were performed according to standard procedure ( 5).titers are expressed as the reciprocal of the highest dilution of serum that inhibits 4 hemagglutination units of virus . a(h1n1)pdm09 lineage .
location of farms tested for antibodies against influenza a(h1n1)pdm09 virus in serologic surveys , runion island , 20092011 .
blue dots , seronegative farms ; red dots , seropositive farms . in a second step ( june 2010 , when a(h1n1)pdm09 infection was no longer detected among humans ) , we tested whether the virus was still circulating among pigs born that year . to obtain nasal swab and blood samples for testing
, we randomly selected 390 fattening pigs ( 2527 weeks old ) at the slaughterhouse ; the pigs... | during 2009 , pandemic influenza a(h1n1)pdm09 virus affected humans on runion island .
since then , the virus has sustained circulation among local swine herds , raising concerns about the potential for genetic evolution of the virus and possible retransmission back to humans of variants with increased virulence .
continuous surveillance of a(h1n1)pdm09 infection in pigs is recommended . |
7,155 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: semiconductor quantum dots are excellent fluorescent nanoprobes for biological and biomedical applications because of their unique size - dependent optical and electronic properties ( penn et al 2003 ; alivisatos
these nanoparticles ( nps ) possess unique optical properties in comparison with traditional organic dyes including size- and composition - tunable emission , narrow emission spectra , and excellent photostability ( hotz 2005 ) .
recent improvements in surface chemistry have augmented the ability to make functionalized nps to create bioconjugated nps that allow for specific targeting or signal enhancement ( farokhzad et al 2006 ; fujiwara et al 2006 ; goodman et al 2006 ; ipe et al 2006 ; suk et al 2006 ) .
bioconjugated nps , coupled with spectroscopy or other spectral imaging tools , eg , flow cytometry and histological techniques , provides a novel and powerful platform for mapping the molecular and disease profiles associated with infection by different pathogens ( zhao et al 2004 ; driskell et al 2005 ; yao et al 2006 ; mcveigh 2006 ) .
another advantage of bioconjugated nps over conventional pathogen detection methods is that the nps may be conjugated with many biomolecules thereby enhancing the signal and the binding avidity by mitigating a multivalency effect .
this is particularly important for targeting nps and for increasing the delivery or efficacy of bioconjugated molecules .
however , only limited reports are available which address the utility of nps for detection or diagnosis virus infection ( agrawal et al 2005 , 2006 ; bentzen et al 2005 ; driskell et al 2005 ; li , cu , et al 2005 ; li , liu , et al 2005 ; wabuyele and vo - dinh 2005 ; wan et al 2005 ; fuentes et al 2006 ; liu , cao , et al 2006 ; souza et al 2006 ) . respiratory syncytial virus ( rsv ) is a single - stranded negative sense rna virus in the paramyxoviridae family that is the primary cause of morbidity and life - threatening lower respiratory tract disease in infants and young children worldwide , as well as an... | the integration of nanotechnology with biology has produced major advances in molecular diagnostics , therapeutics , and bioengineering .
recent advances have led to the development of functionalized nanoparticles ( nps ) that are covalently linked to biological molecules such as antibodies , peptides , proteins , and nucleic acids .
these functionalized nps allow for development of novel diagnostic tools and methods , particularly for pathogens , as rapid and sensitive diagnostics are essential for defining the emergence of infection , determining the period that preventive measures should be applied , for evaluating drug and vaccine efficacy , and for controlling epidemics . in this study , we show that functionalized nps conjugated to monoclonal antibodies can be used to rapidly and specifically detect respiratory syncytial virus in vitro and in vivo .
these results suggest that functionalized nps can provide direct , rapid , and sensitive detection of viruses and thereby bridge the gap between current cumbersome virus detection assays and the burgeoning need for more rapid and sensitive detection of viral agents . |
7,156 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: se presentan dos casos de hepatitis viral en los cuales la terapia convencional no fue efectiva .
ambos fueron tratados posteriormente segn protocolos de uso de medicamentos homeopticos , como se describe a continuacin .
ambos pacientes registraron una remisin sostenida durante 2 aos , luego de consumir medicamentos naturales ultradiluidos y de que se descontinuaran sus correspondientes tratamientos convencionales .
el protocolo de tratamiento incluy como medicamentos principales chelidonium majus ( celidonia mayor ) 6x y thuja ( tuya ) 30c .
se confirmaron casos de desarrollo de anti - cuerpos estndares contra la hepatitis y mediciones de carga viral .
se realiz un seguimiento de los pacientes durante ms de 2 aos con mediciones de carga viral , enzimas hepticas y otros marcadores biolgicos relevantes de enfermedades hepticas .
ambos pacientes viven y se desenvuelven normalmente en sus hogares , luego de transcurridos ms de 2 aos desde el inicio del tratamiento .
discusin : analizamos la informacin relacionada con los medicamentos principales empleados en estos casos y descubrimos que tienen efectos teraputicos conocidos y demostrados que sugeran mecanismos de accin convincentes aplicables a estos casos .
los ensayos clnicos de este protocolo de tratamiento homeoptico se deben llevar a cabo para analizar los efectos teraputicos potenciales de este tipo de medicamentos para el tratamiento de la hepatitis viral .
on a routine health maintenance visit in 1994 , a 37-year - old woman was found to have elevated liver enzymes .
her first liver biopsy in january 1998 showed grade 1 ( of 4 ) inflammation and stage 1 to 2 ( of 4 ) delicate bridging fibrosis .
subsequent hepatitis c antibody testing revealed chronic hepatitis c. genotyping of the virus in 1998 revealed type 1b with a viral count of 33 000 000 iu / ml .
she enrolled in a clinical trial of pegylated inter - feron ( peg - inf ) subcutaneously 1.5 [ .proportional]g / kg once a week for 4 weeks followed by peg - inf 0.5 [ .proportional]g / kg once a week... | abstractintroduction : two cases of viral hepatitis that had failed conventional therapy are presented .
both were subsequently treated with protocols using homeopathic medicines as detailed below .
both patients sustained remissions for 2 years after taking ultradilute natural medicines after their conventional treatment had been discontinued.methods:the treatment protocol included chelidonium majus 6x and thuja 30c as the main medicines .
other homeopathic medicines were used as detailed below .
cases were confirmed with standard hepatitis antibody and viral measurements .
patients were followed for more than 2 years with measurements of viral counts , liver enzymes , and other relevant biomarkers of liver disease.results:both patients are alive and functioning normally in their home environments more than 2 years after treatment initiation.discussion:we review the literature related to the chief medicines used in these cases and find that they have known and demonstrated therapeutic effects suggesting plausible mechanisms of action in these cases.conclusions:clinical trials of this homeopathic treatment protocol should be conducted to explore the therapeutic potential of these medicines for treatment of viral hepatitis . |
7,157 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: odontoma that was previously considered as tumor of odontogenic origin is now considered as hamartomatous dental malformation formed by the overgrowth or transitory of complete dental tissue .
odontomas are usually asymptomatic and generally consist of unerupted or impacted teeth , retained deciduous teeth , swelling and evidence of infection .
the incidence of compound odontoma ranges between 9% to 37% and that of complex odontoma between 5% to 30% , respectively .
odontomas are usually discovered during second and third decades of life with some cases in first decade of life too .
the compound odontoma is more common than complex odontoma , which in turn is more common than ameloblasticodontoma .
majority of odontomas in anterior segment of jaws are compound odontoma ( 61% ) ; whereas in posterior segment , complex odontomas are common ( 34% ) .
interestingly , it has been observed that both type of odontomas occurred more frequently on right side of jaw than left , ( compound 62% and complex 68% ) .
the compound odontoma frequently occurs in incisor - cuspid region of maxillary arch in contrast to complex odontoma that is usually found in premolar - molar region of mandible . in this paper ,
a rare case of massive compound odontoma with 36 denticles in 9 years boy is discussed that was diagnosed accidentally and treated for the presentation of condition with relevant literature review .
a 9-year boy reported to the department of pediatric and preventive dentistry , with a chief complaint of pain and swelling in mandibular left posterior region since 1 year .
the swelling was small initially that increased gradually over a period of time to present size with pain aggravating on mastication .
intra - oral examination of affected side revealed presence of a grossly carious , retained 74 .
an oval shaped swelling was noticed over buccal gingiva extending from mesial margin of 33 to distal margin of 35 anteroposteriorly measuring approximately 3 cm and superoinferiorly 1.5 cm in dimension .
adjacent 33 was... | the purpose of this paper is to describe the case of surgical management of massive compound odontoma with 36 denticles in a 9-year - boy who presented with a complaint of pain and swelling in mandibular left posterior region and retained 74 .
the denticles were removed after the removal of retained 74 completely and wound healing was observed .
odontomas are considered as hamartomatous dental malformation rather than true neoplasm of odontogenic origin .
they are the most commonly occurring abnormally formed dental tissues that interfere with eruption of associated teeth .
the eruption disturbances seen due to odontomas are delayed eruption or deflection of associated teeth
. these malformations are usually asymptomatic and discovered during routine radiographic investigations .
correct diagnosis followed by proper treatment plan results in a favorable prognosis . |
7,158 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the global hcc bridge ( bridge to better outcomes in hcc ) study was the first multiregional , large - scale , longitudinal cohort study to document the hcc patient experience from diagnosis to death.the objective was to provide an improved understanding of global patterns of hcc therapy and associated outcomes across real - world clinical practice.the study showed the pattern of initial and second recorded treatments in real practice.these results confirm previously reported regional trends in patient demographic characteristics and hcc risk factors , document treatment heterogeneity across regions / countries , and underscore the need for earlier hcc diagnosis worldwide .
the global hcc bridge ( bridge to better outcomes in hcc ) study was the first multiregional , large - scale , longitudinal cohort study to document the hcc patient experience from diagnosis to death .
the objective was to provide an improved understanding of global patterns of hcc therapy and associated outcomes across real - world clinical practice .
these results confirm previously reported regional trends in patient demographic characteristics and hcc risk factors , document treatment heterogeneity across regions / countries , and underscore the need for earlier hcc diagnosis worldwide .
the bridge study was a real - world , observational , longitudinal cohort study , with data collected from 1 january 2005 to 30 september 2012 .
the primary objective was to assess current treatment approaches and associated clinical outcomes in hcc .
secondary objectives were to assess and compare the characteristics of patients with hcc treated with sorafenib or with other therapies in the same time period , and to evaluate the treatment pattern and resource use .
the study was done in accordance with ethical principles based on those in the current declaration of helsinki , and was consistent with international conference on harmonization good clinical practice guidelines , good epidemiology practices and applicable regulatory requirements... | background & aimshepatocellular carcinoma ( hcc ) is the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide .
the global hcc bridge study was a multiregional , large - scale , longitudinal cohort study undertaken to improve understanding of real - life management of patients with hcc , from diagnosis to death.methodsdata were collected retrospectively from january 2005 to september 2012 by chart reviews of eligible patients newly diagnosed with hcc at participating institutions.resultsforty-two sites in 14 countries contributed final data for 18 031 patients .
asia accounted for 67% of patients , europe for 20% and north america for 13% . as expected , the most common risk factor was hepatitis c virus in north america , europe and japan , and hepatitis b virus in china , south korea and taiwan .
the most common barcelona clinic liver cancer stage at diagnosis was c in north america , europe , china and south korea , and a in taiwan and japan . across all stages ,
first hcc treatment was most frequently transarterial chemoembolization in north america , europe , china and south korea , percutaneous ethanol injection or radiofrequency ablation in japan and resection in taiwan .
survival from first hcc treatment varied significantly by region , with median overall survival not reached for taiwan and 60 , 33 , 31 , 24 and 23 months for japan , north america , south korea , europe and china respectively ( p < 0.0001).conclusionsinitial results from the bridge study confirm previously reported regional trends in patient demographic characteristics and hcc risk factors , document the heterogeneity of treatment approaches across regions / countries and underscore the need for earlier hcc diagnosis worldwide . |
7,159 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: several multifunctional proteins are involved in both transcriptional and translational control ( wilkinson and shyu , 2001 ) . here
we focus on a family of such multifunctional proteins , the y - box protein family , in terms of its significance in cell proliferation and cancer . as different aspects of the y - box proteins
have already been reviewed ( matsumoto and wolffe , 1998 ; swamynathan et al , 1998 ; evdokimova and ovchinnikov , 1999 ; kohno et al , 2003 ) , we briefly appraise the structure and functions of the y - box proteins with the emphasis on recent findings .
we then summarize the role of a y - box protein yb-1 in cancer and its use in the clinical setting .
y - box proteins ( or y - box binding proteins ) are so named because they were originally identified as dna binding proteins that are capable of associating with the y - box ( inverted ccaat - box ) sequence of the major histocompatibility complex class ii gene .
y - box proteins have thus far been known to regulate positively or negatively a number of genes , such as multidrug resistance 1 , cyclin a , cyclin b1 , matrix metalloproteinase 2 and collagen alpha2(i ) ( higashi et al , 2003a ; jurchott et al , 2003 ; kohno et al , 2003 ) .
however , members of y - box protein family are also found in the cytoplasm and associated with mrnas as major components of messenger ribonucleoprotein particles .
y - box proteins regulate translation in a dose - dependent manner ; low concentrations of y - box proteins activate translation and high concentrations repress it ( evdokimova and ovchinnikov , 1999 ) .
collectively , y - box proteins have been implicated in the regulation of mrna metabolism in multiple steps in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm , including transcription , splicing , mrna stability and translation .
y - box proteins consist of three domains : the n - terminal domain , the cold shock domain ( csd ) and the c - terminal tail domain ( figure 1 ) .
the csd is a highly conserved nucleic acid binding domain that confers rna- and... | y - box proteins belong to the cold shock domain family of proteins that are known to be involved in both transcriptional and translational control . here , we give a brief overview of the structure , regulation and physiological functions of the y - box proteins .
this is followed by examining the role of y - box protein 1 ( yb-1 ) , the most extensively studied of the y - box protein in tumorigenesis , and its clinicopathological significance .
yb-1 has the potential to be a prognostic marker and predictor of chemoresistance in human cancers . |
7,160 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: it is not a specific disease entity , but a gingival response associated with a variety of conditions .
these desquamative lesions represent oral manifestations of various dermatoses which include lichen planus , pemphigus vulgaris , erythema multiform , lupus erythematosus , dermatitis herpetiformis , and chronic ulcerative stomatitis .
hence , it is of paramount importance to ascertain the identity of the disease responsible of desquamative gingivitis to establish the appropriate therapeutic approach and management .
this paper reports a case of rare desquamative lesion involving the gingiva in a 66-year - old female patient .
a 66-year - old female patient reported to department of periodontics , m. s. ramaiah dental college and hospital , bangalore , with the complaint of burning sensation in the gums for the past one month which had started spontaneously , not associated with pain and aggravated on taking spicy foods and relieved gradually .
she also had bleeding gums for the past one month , while brushing and eating .
her personal history reveals that she had no habits and she used medium brush with non - medicated paste . on extra oral examination , she had some obvious skin lesions on the scalp which appeared as depigmented scarring alopecia of the scalp [ figure 1 ] .
depigmentation with scarring alopecia of the scalp hyperkeratotic plaque present on the posterior auricle of the left ear intra oral examination of gingiva revealed reddish marginal , attached gingiva and interdental papilla in both maxillary and mandibular anterior region [ figure 3 ] .
desquamation of epithelium was present in the attached gingiva of maxillary right first molar region , mandibular right canine , between maxillary right premolars on the palatal aspect .
desquamation of the gingiva -maxillary and mandibular anterior region desquamation present palatal desquamation present lingual nikolsky 's sign - positive the h and e section showed parakeratinized stratified squamous epithelium overlying the connective tissue .
the... | desquamative gingival lesions are non - plaque induced inflammatory gingival lesions .
it is a clinical description and not a diagnosis .
these desquamative lesions represent oral manifestations of various dermatoses .
discoid lupus erythematosus is one of the rare dermatoses which show desquamative lesions as oral manifestations .
this article presents a rare case report of discoid lupus erythematosus with oral lesions involving gingiva of a 66-year - old female patient . |
7,161 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: rehabilitation for the cerebral palsied children should be given thought a team work
including parents as a model refers to patient centered treatment regimens1,2,3 .
this idea encourages considering parent s opinions about physiotherapy and rehabilitation
for their children with cp . for this reason , health providers , especially physiotherapists
( pts )
, should talk with the parents of a disabled child before planning a specific treatment
or intervention in order to establish the most suitable program for the child4,5,6,7 .
the parents of disabled children seek to learn all details , both positive and negative
aspects , about a physiotherapy and rehabilitation program that will be applied to their
children .
this is necessary for the parents to understand the mission and goal of the
program .
moreover , the pts and mother ( m ) or father of a disabled child should evaluate the
child together so that they can define the needs of the child .
for this reason , the parents
of children with cp should also be included in making decisions in the rehabilitation
process4 , 5 ,
8 , 9 the purposes of this research were ( 1 ) to understand perceptions of ms and pts regarding
the rehabilitation programs their children receive and ( 2 ) to report the current knowledge
of ms and pts , highlighting consensus and disagreement .
one hundred and thirty children ( 75
boys , 55 girls ) who were being treated in special education centers in different parts of
turkey and their ms and 130 pts who were treating them were included in the study .
informed consent was obtained from ms and pts , written approval was obtained for the study
from the managers of the schools , and the study was completed in accordance with the
principles of the helsinki declaration .
the inclusion criteria were as follows : all participants agreed to participate , the
children had been diagnosed with cp by a pediatric neurologist , and the caregivers of the
children had to be ms .
demographic data of children , ms ,... | [ purpose ] the aim of this study was to examine the agreement between physiotherapists
( pts ) and mothers ( ms ) about the treatment of children with cerebral palsy ( cp ) who
received treatment in special education and rehabilitation centers . [ subjects ] ms of 130
children with cp ( 75 boys , 55 girls ) and 130 pts who applied rehabilitation programs were
interviewed .
[ methods ] clinical types and gross motor function levels of the children were
recorded . a questionnaire consisting of 6 open - ended questions
was used to describe the
expectations and views of the pts and ms about the physiotherapy and rehabilitation
programs for the children .
[ results ] the mean age of the children was 89.8052.05 months .
the mean treatment period for the children was 73.6242.11 months .
the mean age of the
mothers was 35.475.79 years , and the mean age of the pts was 28.077.28 years .
we found a
statistically moderate level of agreement between the pts and ms regarding the
appropriateness of the treatment provided to the children .
there was statistically
insignificant agreement regarding the applied treatment methods and the appropriateness of
the applied rehabilitation programs .
[ conclusion ] we believe that the views and
expectations of the ms should be taken into account by the pts when preparing a treatment
program for children with cp . |
7,162 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: intoxication due to carbon monoxide ( co ) is one of the most common types of poisoning , and one of the most important toxicological global causes of morbidity and mortality ( 1 ) .
a weak association between carboxyhemoglobin ( cohb ) level and patients clinical picture is documented ( 2 ) .
co binds rapidly to hemoglobin with greater affinity than oxygen ( o2 ) and forms cohb , which leads to a decrease in the o2 carrying capacity of the blood resulting in tissue hypoxia .
therefore , organs with high oxygen demand , such as heart , brain and lungs are most sensitive to hypoxia ( 3 - 6 ) .
cardiac effects of cohb range from simple arrhythmias to myocardial infarction ( 7 - 9 ) . cardiac troponins ( ctn )
the release of ctn into the circulation occurs as a consequence of cardiomyocyte injury ( 10 ) .
highly sensitive - ctn ( hs - ctnt ) assays are developed recently , enabling measurements of concentrations that are 100-fold lower than those of the ones previously measurable ( 11 ) .
the current study aimed to assess whether or not myocardial damage occurs in patients with co poisoning . the study investigated the relationship between blood carboxyhemoglobin and hs - ctnt level with a highly sensitive assay in patients with acute co poisoning .
the current retrospective study was conducted at the sevket yilmaz training and research hospital that is a state tertiary hospital with 1050 beds , located in the eastern bursa , turkey .
the study used the data available in the hospital clinical data warehouse , a centralized data repository integrating information in several databases including the order entry database and the laboratory results database of the hospital .
patients diagnosed with co poisoning were included in the study and their corresponding electronic charts were reviewed for data collection .
prescription data were linked to detailed clinical information including patient demographics , diagnosis , clinical characteristics ( including past medical history , smoking status ) , co source (... | backgroundintoxication due to carbon monoxide ( co ) is one of the most common types of poisoning .
cardiac effects of carboxyhemoglobin ( cohb ) range from simple arrhythmias to myocardial infarction.objectivesthe current study aimed to investigate the relationship between blood carboxyhemoglobin and high - sensitivity cardiac troponin t ( hs - ctnt ) level with a highly sensitive assay in patients with acute carbon monoxide poisoning.patients and methodsthis retrospective study was conducted on 141 ( 54 males and 87 females ) patients , with acute co intoxication , admitted to the sevket yilmaz research and education hospital emergency unit during a one - year period ( january 2012 - january 2013 ) .
the patients were divided into three groups based on cohb levels : group i , mild cohb level < 15% ; group ii , cohb between 15% and 25% ; group iii , severe acute co intoxication cohb levels > 25% .
cohb , hs - ctnt ( stat ) , creatine kinase ( ck ) and creatine kinase - myocardial band ( ck - mb ) levels were measured on admission.resultsthe mean age of the patients was 38 16 years .
cohb levels ranged from 8 to 35 .
hs - ctnt levels on inclusion in this study were slightly different between the groups ( p = 0.05 ) .
cohb levels with hs - ctnt values were weakly correlated ( r = 0.173 , p = 0.041 ) ; on the other hand , ck - mb levels were not correlated with cohb ( r = 0.013 , p = 0.883).conclusionsin patients without clear signs of myocardial infarction , even mild co poisoning was associated with quantifiable circulating levels of hs - ctnt when tnt was measured using a highly sensitive assay in the current study patients .
plasma levels of the hs - tnt and ck - mb assays were not correlated with the cohb levels in the current study patients . |
7,163 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: one eye of the guinea pigs was randomly selected and treated with 7.00d lenses .
the method of cycloplegia was induced with three drops of tropicamide , and the refraction status was measured by means of streak retinoscopy in hand - held , awake animals .
the axial length of the eyes was measured by an a - scan ultrasound while the animals were anesthetized with ketamine ( 80 mg / kg ) by intramuscular injection .
ocular refraction and axial length were performed before the experiment and 1 , 2 , and 3 weeks after minus lens intervention .
the measurement was repeated at least three times for each eye , and the refraction and axial length of each guinea pig at every measurement were averaged .
anova , with repeated measures design , was used to investigate the influence of the intervention on the axial length and refraction .
a one - way anova , followed by student 's unpaired t - test , with bonferroni correction for multiple testing , was used to analyze ocular parameters between groups .
this study was complied with the tenets of the association for research in vision and ophthalmology statement for the use of animal in ophthalmic and vision research .
after the refraction and axial length measurements at 1 , 2 , and 3 weeks of minus lens intervention , five guinea pigs were randomly selected and were deep anesthetized with 0.03 ml / kg chloral hydrate by intraperitoneal injection . with the animals under deep anesthesia
, both eyes were enucleated at a similar time point ( between 4:00 and 6:00 pm ) to minimize the effect of diurnal variation on gene expression .
a circumferential incision was made along the limbus , followed by removal of the cornea , crystalline lens , and vitreous body .
the entire retina was separated from the choroid while the sample was soaked in iced neutral buffer formaldehyde solution .
twenty - four hours later , the retina was embedded in paraffin to detect expression of mfn1 with immunohistochemistry ( streptavidin - perosidase ( sp ) three steps ) .
before the intervention ,... | purpose : the aim of this study is to preliminarily investigate the expression of mitochondrial fusion protein 1 ( mfn1 ) in a lens - induced animal myopia ( lim ) model and to explore the relationship between mfn1 and the visual development.materials and methods : mfn1 gene expression in guinea pigs was examined during the development of minus lim , 15 tri - colored guinea pigs were obtained , and one eye of each pig was randomly selected and treated with 7.00d lenses .
ocular refraction and axial length were collected before intervention and 1 , 2 , and 3 weeks after intervention .
after the refraction and axial length measurements at 1 , 2 , and 3 weeks of lens intervention , five guinea pigs were randomly selected .
mfn1 expression in the retina of both eyes was tested by immunohistochemistry technique.results:mfn1-positive cells could be observed in the retina of both eyes .
the positive cells in the lim eyes were staining deeper , and much more positive cells could be observed .
furthermore , mfn1-positive expression could be seen mainly in ganglion cells after 1 week of minus lens intervention , and with time extension , more and more positive cells appeared in the rod - cone cell and bipolar cell layer , and this phenomenon could not be found in the normal control eyes.conclusion:this study suggested that mfn1 might be correlated to the development of myopia . |
7,164 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: we initiated our study by investigating the reactivity of substrates derived from geraniol under our previously reported hydroamination conditions ( table 1 ) .
a variety of leaving groups , including alkoxy , silyloxy , carbonate , phosphate , and carboxylates , provided the desired product with high levels of enantioselectivity ( entries 16 ) .
the stable and readily - prepared allylic benzoate was found to provide the desired product in high yield .
incorporation of an electron - withdrawing group on the benzoate to increase the nucleofugality of the leaving group was found instead to significantly reduce the yield ( entry 7 ) .
in contrast , the use of electron - donating substituents on the benzoate , such as a 4-dimethylamino group ( entry 8) , produced near quantitative yield of the -chiral amine ( s)-3a . an evaluation of ligands revealed dtbm - segphos to give superior results compared to all others tested ( entry 8 vs. entries 912 ) . under the optimized conditions ,
the scope of allylic benzoates that could be transformed was investigated ( table 2 ) .
a variety of substrates were converted into the corresponding chiral amines with high enantioselectivity and in moderate to excellent yields .
a variety of 3,3-dialkyl substituted allylic 4-(dimethylamino)benzoates were first investigated ( table 2a ) . when the isomeric nerol - derived 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate containing a ( z)-configured allylic double bond was exposed to the optimized conditions , the opposite enantiomer ( r)-3a was obtained with slightly lower yield and enantioselectivity ( 3a vs. 3a ) .
bulky groups at the 3-position of the allylic system were tolerated and provided chiral amine products in moderate to good yields and exceptionally high enantioselectivity ( 3b d ) .
a variety of functional groups were readily accommodated , including a ketal ( 3d ) , an aryl group ( 3e ) , a sulfonamide ( 3f ) , an alkyl chloride ( 3 g ) , ethers ( 3h , 3j ) , an ester ( 3k ) , a free alcohol ( 3i ) and an unprotected secondary amine ( 3l )... | amines with remote stereocenters ( stereocenters that are three or more bonds away from the c
n bond ) are important structural elements in many pharmaceutical agents and natural products . however , previously reported methods to prepare these compounds in an enantioselective manner are indirect and require multistep synthesis . here
we report a copper hydride - catalysed , enantioselective synthesis of - or -chiral amines from readily available allylic alcohols , esters , and ethers using a reductive relay hydroamination strategy ( a net reductive process in which an amino group is installed at a site remote from the original c c double bond ) .
the protocol was suitable for substrates containing a wide range of functional groups and provided remote chiral amine products with high levels of regio- and enantioselectivity .
sequential amination of substrates containing several carbon - carbon double bonds could be achieved , demonstrating the high chemoselectivity of this process . |
7,165 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the plan of treatment of deformities of the jaws includes pre - surgical orthodontic treatment designed to eliminate dental compensations present ( i.e. , the anomalies of the teeth that have taken place ) and the preparation of the dental arches in relation to the scheduled surgery . in the field of orthodontics and surgery ,
studies have been carried out to improve some characteristics like the modulus of elasticity and frictional modulus of orthodontic appliances .
although the le fort i osteotomy is a safe surgical technique , many complications have been reported with a low incidence of occurrence .
these include swelling , haemorrhage , infections , nerve injuries , bone necrosis , tmj problems , periodontal disease , ophthalmic and middle ear disorders , dysphagia and psychological problems .
in particular , vascular complications can arise from direct trauma to the vessels due to the blind nature of the osteotomy in the maxillary posterior area .
unwanted fracture lines may also extend to the pterygopalatine fossa , skull base and to the orbit . as a rule , the osteotome position during pterygomaxillary separation is contiguous to the internal maxillary artery ( i m a ) , therefore , complications are rare .
the entire course of internal maxillary artery ( i m a ) from its retro - mandibular origin to its termination within the pterygopalatine fossa is vulnerable to iatrogenic injury .
therefore , to avoid possible delayed complications and facilitate their management , continuous postoperative monitoring is essential .
the descending palatine artery is the vessel most often involved in traumatic injuries during orthognatic surgery of the maxilla .
less often , the maxillary artery and its terminal branches , the pterygoid venous plexus , the internal carotid artery , and internal jugular vein may be damaged .
we present a case of an extended cervico - facial haematoma due to delayed bleeding from the terminal branches of the maxillary artery after orthognatic surgery .
a 23-year - old man was... | although the le fort i osteotomy is a safe surgical technique , many complications have been reported .
we present a case of an extended cervico - facial haematoma due to delayed bleeding from the terminal branches of the maxillary artery after orthognatic surgery .
a 23-year - old man was referred to our observation for the surgical correction of a class iii asymmetric malocclusion .
the patient underwent a le fort i osteotomy , with impaction of the maxilla , associated with an epker mandibular bilateral sagittal split osteotomy , with maxillary advancement and rigid internal fixation of the mandible with four miniplates and another four for the upper maxilla as well .
the first post - surgery day , the patient developed a gradual dispnea together with neck swelling . by second postoperative day
, the patient 's general condition improved with a progressive normalization of laboratory tests values .
the computerised axial tomography ( cat ) scan confirmed a decrease in the parapharyngeal thickening .
total recovery was achieved within two months , the final clinical check showed a healthy appearance with good occlusion .
an increased knowledge of the basic biology of the le fort i osteotomy , the development of instruments specially designed for the le fort i procedure and the use of hypotensive anaesthesia could reduce the morbidity and duration of this procedure . |
7,166 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this article is a summary of our experience with the treatment of a patient with an extraordinarily large deep burn ( 99.5% tbsa and 23% fourth degree burn ) by using the microskin autografting and alloskin repeated grafting method to close the deep burn wound because of scarcity of skin sources of the patient .
the patient has been observed for 2 years , and is able to face the reality of life peacefully with the support of his family .
the salvage rate of large burns has improved steadily in the past 10 years in china . however , in patients with a scarcity of skin sources , treatment of large fourth degree burns remains a great clinical challenge . for extensive severe burn wounds repair
, there are 3 major solutions : meek skin grafting , chinese - originated micro - skin autografting , and transplantation of cultured epidermal cells .
meek skin grafting can expand the donor skin by 39 times , and micro - skin autografting can do this 1015 times larger .
therefore , micro - skin autografting is more suitable for application to severely burned patients who have a scarcity of skin sources .
autologous transplantation of cultured keratinocytes can provide adequate skin sources for wound closure , but the long cultivation time , high cost and rigorous technology requirements limit its application in developing countries .
even though the patient is saved , the patient s quality of life remains an increasing concern , both on the part of clinicians and society .
this article is a summary of our experience with the treatment of a patient with an extraordinarily large deep burn ( 99.5% tbsa and 23% fourth degree burn ) by using the microskin autografting and alloskin repeated grafting method to close the wound because of scarcity of skin sources .
the patient was observed for 2 years , and the quality of life is evaluated .
the patient is a 29-year - old male who was seriously burned by molten steel ( about 1,500c ) from the top of the head throughout the body , in an accidental furnace explosion .
thirty... | summarybackgroundtreatment of extraordinarily large deep burns remains a huge clinical challenge.case reportthis article is a summary of our experience with the treatment of a patient with an extraordinarily large deep burn ( 99.5% tbsa and 23% fourth degree burn ) by using the microskin autografting and alloskin repeated grafting method to close the deep burn wound because of scarcity of skin sources of the patient.conclusionsthe patient has been observed for 2 years , and is able to face the reality of life peacefully with the support of his family . |
7,167 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: tanzania has experienced tremendous social changes and this has affected the health status of vulnerable populations over the last few years ( mujinja and kida 2014 ) .
rural women especially have been placed in a worse health - care position compared with urban women ( tanzania gender networking program and macro 2007 ) . since the 1990s , despite the fact that free medical services are provided to mothers and children , indicators such as nutritional status of mothers , anc attendance and facility - based delivery have not correspondingly improved ( national bureau of statistics tanzania and icf macro 2000 ; maletnlema 2002 ; abubakar et al .
the situation is worse in rural tanzania because of poor sociocultural , physical and financial accessibility ( kruk et al .
tanzania has a network of health facilities at national , regional , district , divisional , ward and village level enabling > 90% of population to be within 10 km of a health facility ( mella 2003 ) .
overall 60% of health services are provided by public sector and the government exempts the poor and vulnerable groups from user - fees in essential maternal and child health services ( ministry of health 2003 ) . in urban areas ,
health - care services is more easily accessible than in rural areas due to available and reliable transportation and higher coverage of health facilities ( pfeiffer and mwaipopo 2013 ) .
maternal mortality is one of the key indicators of women s health status . despite the global efforts to improve maternal health , the mortality rate is still unacceptably high in tanzania . according to a world health organization ( 2012 ) report ,
the maternal mortality ratio in 2010 was 460 per 100 000 live births and annually , around 8500 women die from pregnancy - related causes .
because most of the maternal deaths occur during and immediately after childbirth ( abouzahr 1998 ) , delivery in a health facility has been suggested as the key component for prevention of pregnancy - related death .
there are four groups of... | there is a known high disparity in access to perinatal care services between urban and rural areas in tanzania .
this study analysed repeated cross - sectional ( rcs ) data from tanzania to explore the relationship between antenatal care ( anc ) visits , facility - based delivery and the reasons for home births in women who had made anc visits .
we used data from rcs demographic and health surveys spanning 20 years and a cluster sample of 30 830 women from 52 districts of tanzania .
the relationship between the number of anc visits ( up to four ) and facility delivery in the latest pregnancy was explored .
regional changes in facility delivery and related variables over time in urban and rural areas were analysed using linear mixed models . to explore the disconnect between anc visits and facility deliveries , reasons for home delivery
were analysed . in the analytic model with other regional - level covariates ,
a higher proportion of anc ( > 24 visits ) and exposure to media related to an increased facility delivery rate in urban areas . for rural women
, there was no significant relationship between the number of visits and facility delivery rate . according to the fifth wave result ( 200910 ) , the most frequent reason for home delivery was
physical distance to facility , and a significantly higher proportion of rural women reported that they were not allowed to deliver in facility. the disconnect between anc visits and facility delivery in rural areas may be attributable to physical , cultural or familial barriers , and quality of care in health facilities .
this suggests that improving access to anc may not be enough to motivate facility - based delivery , especially in rural areas . |
7,168 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: optical coherence tomography ( oct ) allows automated quantification of both peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer ( rnfl ) and ganglion cell - inner plexiform layer ( gcipl ) macular thicknesses , providing information on the probability of an abnormality being present after comparison with an internal normative database .
several known factors can affect these measurements such as age , ethnic background , refractive errors , optic disc area , and foveal - disc angle.16 recently , longer axial length has been significantly associated with an increased incidence of false - positives ( fps ) on ganglion cell analysis ( gca ) and rnfl maps after uni- and multivariate analyses.37 caution is recommended in moderate myopic individuals because a high percentage can be misclassified as abnormal by rnfl and gca cirrus oct maps.4 a study has reported that spectralis oct ( heidelberg engineering , dossenheim , germany ) might be more specific than cirrus ( 39% vs 18% ) when evaluating rnfl thickness for caucasians and moderate myopic population.5 axial length , mean spherical equivalent , presence of peripapillary atrophy , and tilted disc were significantly related to the rnfl fp occurrence displayed by both the devices ; therefore , the degree of myopic optic disc tilt should be considered when interpreting the rnfl thickness measured by oct.5,710 clinical features of tilted disc overlap with other conditions , such as myopic disc and glaucoma , but the role of conventional oct imaging technologies for the optic nerve head ( onh ) is limited.4,5 currently , rim width measurement method uses the bruch s membrane opening ( bmo ) as the anatomical border of the rim , referenced to a bmo horizontal reference plane , termed as bmo - horizontal rim width ( bmo - hrw).11 in contrast , the spectralis oct glaucoma module premium ( gmp ) edition provides a new , objective method of onh analysis using bmo , but the neuroretinal rim assessment is performed from the bmo to the nearest point on the internal limiting membrane... | background and objectiveto investigate and compare the false - positive ( fp ) diagnostic classification of the bruch s membrane opening minimum rim width ( bmo - mrw ) and retinal nerve fiber layer ( rnfl ) thickness in healthy eyes with tilted optic disc.materials and methodsfifty healthy eyes of 30 participants with tilted optic disc underwent bmo - mrw and rnfl scanning using spectralis and macular cirrus optical coherence tomography ( oct ) scans.resultsthe overall fp rate was significantly lower using bmo - mrw map compared with both rnfl map by spectralis ( 8% vs 62% , respectively , p<0.001 ) and ganglion cell analysis ( gca ) map by cirrus ( 8% vs 50% , respectively , p<0.001 ) .
specificity was significantly higher using bmo - mrw than rnfl in eyes with low ( 89.7% vs 41.4% , p<0.001 ) and moderate myopia ( 95.2% vs 33.3% , p<0.001).conclusionoct - derived bmo - mrw analysis provides significantly greater specificity than rnfl in tilted disc irrespectively of the refractive error , and it is more specific than gca analysis in tilted disc with moderate myopia . |
7,169 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: caffeine 's main mechanism of action is by blocking the adenosine receptors and altering the levels of various neurotransmitters like dopamine , adrenaline , serotonin , and acetylcholine .
other mechanisms like mobilization of calcium , inhibition of phosphodiesterases , and binding to benzodiazepine receptors have also been postulated.[46 ] studies have been done using questionnaires , electroencephalography , reaction time tests , and evoked potentials to elucidate the effects of caffeine on central nervous system ( cns ) .
hollingsworth as early as in 1912 , reported that consumption of 65 - 130 mg caffeine increased typing speed , but a dose as high as 390 mg impaired the motor performance .
demonstrated a decrease in the reaction time and error rate with increase in amplitude of event related evoked potential p3 following intake of caffeine .
similar results have also been reported by dixit et al in 2006 . in another study dixit
et al have shown that caffeine intake changes transmission of impulses in the auditory pathway . besides physiological tests , neuropsychological tests have also been used to understand the influence of caffeine .
one such task is the stroop task , first described by john ridley stroop in 1935 .
the stroop task is believed to be the gold standard of attentional measures aimed at studying the interference of a stimulus of one dimension with recognition of stimulus of another dimension .
the conventional color word version task consists of words like blue , red , green and yellow written in another color or are incongruent ( e.g. , red is written with blue ink ) or symbols like xxx in different colors or are neutral .
the time taken to perform the task in the two conditions ( incongruent and neutral ) is recorded and the difference between the two represents interference . similarly the time difference between congruent ( red written in red ink ) and neutral is an indication of facilitation .
foreman et al in 1989 evaluated the effect of caffeine on numerical version... | background : caffeine is a pyschostimulant present in various beverages and known to alter alertness and performance by acting on the central nervous system . its effects on central nervous system have been studied using eeg , evoked potentials , fmri , and neuropsychological tests .
the stroop task is a widely used tool in psychophysiology to understand the attention processes and is based on the principle that processing of two different kinds of information ( like the word or colour ) is parallel and at different speeds with a common response channel.aim:to study the effect of caffeine on classical color word stroop task.materials and methods : this study was conducted on 30 male undergraduate students by performing a test before and 40 minutes after consuming 3 mg / kg caffeine and evaluating the effect of caffeine on stroop interference and facilitation.results:the results revealed that practice has no effect on the performance in a stroop task
. however , there was reduction in stroop interference and increase in facilitation after consumption of caffeine as was evident by changes in the reaction times in response to neutral , incongruent , and congruent stimuli.conclusion:we hypothesize that caffeine led to faster processing of relevant information . |
7,170 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ubiquitination of specific cellular proteins serves as a signal for protein degradation , chromatin remodeling , dna repair , vesicular transport , and changes in protein localization and/or activity depending on the number and structure of the ubiquitin modification .
protein ubiquitination is highly regulated and requires a cascade of enzymes that culminates in a substrate and site - specific modification .
similarly , deubiquitinating enzymes ( dubs ) that remove ubiquitin ( or ubiquitin - like modifiers like sumo or nedd8 ) from substrate proteins to allow recycling of ubiquitin and/or modulation of signaling pathways must be tightly controlled .
ubiquitination and kinase cascades intersect on multiple levels and together they orchestrate key cellular events including endocytosis , cell cycle progression , and growth factor signaling .
kinases activate e3 ubiquitin ligases ( e.g. , the anaphase promoting complex / cyclosome ) which in turn ubiquitinate kinases ( e.g. , polo ) or kinase regulatory subunits ( e.g. , the cyclin subunit of cyclin - dependent kinases ( cdk ) ) .
kinases also regulate protein turnover by marking substrates for phosphorylation - dependent ubiquitin - mediated degradation ( e.g. , by the scf ubiquitin ligase).(14 ) there are many other examples of cross - regulation of ubiquitin and kinase signaling networks , including phosphorylation of deubiquitinating enzymes ( e.g. , cyld).(15 ) here we set the stage for understanding how dubs might be regulated by kinases and phosphatases by cataloging phosphorylation sites of all s. pombe dubs .
dubs are a highly conserved family of proteases involved in : ( 1 ) processing of ubiquitin precursor proteins , ( 2 ) recovery of modified ubiquitin trapped in inactivatable forms , ( 3 ) cleavage of ubiquitin from target proteins , and ( 4 ) recycling of monoubiquitin from free polyubiquitin chains .
the diversity of dub functions is reflected in the number of dubs ( 95 predicted human dubs ) , the variety of catalytic domains ubiquitin c -... | ubiquitination plays a role in virtually every cellular signaling pathway ranging from cell cycle control to dna damage response to endocytosis and gene regulation .
the bulk of our knowledge of the ubiquitination system is centered on modification of specific substrate proteins and the enzymatic cascade of ubiquitination .
our understanding of the regulation of the reversal of these modifications ( deubiquitination ) lags significantly behind .
we recently reported a multifaceted study of the fission yeast schizosaccharomyces pombe dubs including characterization of their binding partners , in vitro enzymatic activity and subcellular localization.(1 ) over half of the 20 fission yeast dubs have a stable protein partner and some of those partners regulate the localization and/or activity of their cognate dub .
as a next step in understanding how dubs might otherwise be regulated , we investigated the phosphostatus of the entire fission yeast dub family using lcms / ms , and here we discuss the possible implications of phosphoregulation . |
7,171 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: mast cells are integrally involved in cellular based immune responses to pathogens as well as inflammatory reactions prompted by pathogens or toxins [ 1 , 2 ] and have been suggested for several years to play a part in the acute phase of multiple sclerosis ( ms ) [ 38 ] .
albeit the mechanisms by which mast cells influence ms are yet to be fully understood , trypsin - like proteases released from degranulating mast cells have been shown to trigger demyelination in a mouse model for ms - experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis ( eae ) .
( 2000 ) , furthermore , support that mast cells are involved in the pathogenesis of eae .
the same group has more recently suggested a significant role for mast cells in activation of inflammasomes localized within meninges .
in contrast , other groups have challenged the contribution of mast cells in eae [ 1113 ] . in particular , feyerabend and colleagues
albeit targeting mast cells as a viable approach to alleviate the disease remains debatable , the contribution of mast cell - derived proteases in eae is still largely uninvestigated .
one of the many mast cell - expressed proteases that potentially may account for the contribution of mast cells to ms / eae is mouse mast cell protease 4 ( mmcp-4 ) , a -chymase predicted to be the murine functional counterpart to the single human chymase ( cma1 ) based on deduced amino acid sequence , tissue localization , and serglycin storage dependence [ 14 , 15 ] . in support for a role of this chymase in mast cell - dependent inflammatory conditions , mmcp-4 plays a protective role in a mouse model of mechanically induced cerebral trauma , yet it is detrimental in lung inflammation and immune complex - induced glomerulonephritis [ 17 , 18 ] . in further support for a role of mmcp-4 in regulating inflammatory mediators , our group has reported that mmcp-4 generates endothelin-1 ( et-1 ) from its precursor big - et-1 [ 19 , 20 ] and that mmcp-4 knockout ( ko ) mice display a 40% reduction in pulmonary et-1 levels when compared to wild... | experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis ( eae ) is a mouse model that reproduces cardinal signs of clinical , histopathological , and immunological features found in multiple sclerosis ( ms ) .
mast cells are suggested to be involved in the main inflammatory phases occurring during eae development , possibly by secreting several autacoids and proteases . among the latter , the chymase mouse mast cell protease 4 ( mmcp-4 ) can contribute to the inflammatory response by producing endothelin-1 ( et-1 ) .
the aim of this study was to determine the impact of mmcp-4 on acute inflammatory stages in eae .
c57bl/6 wild type ( wt ) or mmcp-4 knockout ( ko ) mice were immunized with mog3555 plus complete freund 's adjuvant followed by pertussis toxin .
immunized wt mice presented an initial acute phase characterized by progressive increases in clinical score , which were significantly reduced in mmcp-4 ko mice .
in addition , higher levels of spinal myelin were found in mmcp-4 ko as compared with wt mice .
finally , whereas eae triggered significant increases in brain levels of mmcp-4 mrna and immunoreactive et-1 in wt mice , the latter peptide was reduced to basal levels in mmcp-4 ko congeners .
together , the present study supports a role for mmcp-4 in the early inflammatory phases of the disease in a mouse model of ms . |
7,172 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the association of drinking water hardness and cardiovascular diseases ( cvds ) has been studied since more than five decades ago .
a study in england and wales showed that cardiovascular death - rates had a favorable effect in towns with harder water and had an adverse effect in towns with softer water .
another studies showed that high levels of drinking water hardness can be protective against cvd .
however , a review of ecological studies showed that the results are inconsistent between studies .
a meta - analysis revealed a negative association between concentration of magnesium in water and cvd mortality .
moreover , another review showed protective role of magnesium concentration in water against cvd in some case - control studies and one cohort study , but the analytical studies showed little evidence about the association of calcium and magnesium levels in drinking water and cvd risk .
water hardness may be also associated with cvd risk factors , for instance positive correlations of water magnesium and calcium with blood pressure is documented . in the netherlands ,
another study found no overall association between calcium , magnesium or total hardness and ischemic heart disease or stroke mortality .
water hardness may be also associated with cvd risk factors , for instance positive correlations of water magnesium and calcium with blood pressure is documented .
case - control and cohort studies are more useful than ecological epidemiologicalstudies for investigating cause- and - effect relationships .
the guidelines for drinking - water quality of the world health organization in 2011 reported that one of the case - control studies addressed the association between calcium and acute myocardial infarction and three reported the association between calcium and death from cvds .
the aim of this study is to investigate the association of calcium and magnesium concentration of drinking water with cvds in urban and rural areas of a city in iran .
this case - control study was conducted in 2012 in khansar... | background : the aim of this study is to investigate the association of calcium and magnesium concentration of drinking water with cardiovascular disease ( cvds ) in urban and rural areas of a city in iran.methods:this case - control study was conducted in 2012 in khansar county in isfahan province , iran .
we used the official data of the provincial health center regarding the chemical analysis data of urban and rural areas including the hardness , calcium and magnesium content of drinking water .
data of patients hospitalized for cvd in the only specialty hospital of the city was gathered for the years of 2010 and 2011.results:in 2010 , water calcium content above 72 mg / l was associated with reduced number of cvds in 1000 population ; whereas in 2011 this decrease in cvds was observed for calcium levels of more than 75 mg / l . in 2010 , the level of water mg content ranged from 23 to 57 mg / l . by increasing mg hardness level above 31 mg / l in 2010 and above 26 mg / l in 2011 were associated with decreased number of cvds in 1000 people .
decrease.conclusions:our study suggests favorable protective effects of water hardness , mainly water magnesium content , on cvds .
water hardness , as well as calcium and magnesium content of drinking water may have a protective role against cvds .
further experimental studies are necessary to determine the underlying mechanisms and longitudinal studies are required to study the clinical impacts of the current findings . |
7,173 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: malignant tracheoesophageal fistula ( tef ) is a serious complication of thoracic malignant diseases and is more common in esophageal cancer than in lung cancer .
tef sometimes results in aspiration pneumonia , sepsis , and malnutrition associated with trouble in eating . without proper and prompt treatment , life expectancy is estimated at about 6 weeks .
stent intubation into the trachea and/or esophagus is a reliable treatment leading to improved quality of life .
surgical bypass with gastrostomy is another option , though it might be too invasive in some patients with advanced cancer .
chemoradiotherapy ( crt ) is a controversial option , as it has the potential to induce or worsen tef as a side effect , especially in lung cancer . in esophageal cancer ,
meanwhile , some reports have described closure of tefs after crt [ 3 , 4 ] .
our group experienced a rare case of tef that closed after crt in a patient with poorly differentiated lung carcinoma .
crt seems to have good potential as a palliative treatment for tef in lung cancer , as well .
a 45-year - old man with complaints of cough , dyspnea , weight loss , and difficulty in swallowing was referred to our hospital .
the symptoms had emerged 3 months earlier and he had been completely unable to eat for several days before his admission . on physical examination , a solid mass at the right neck was palpable , the right palpebral fissure was narrowed , and inspiratory stridor was auscultated .
an enhanced chest ct scan revealed a small mass in the superior sulcus invading into the mediastinum ( fig .
1 ) . the sagittal view revealed a cavity within the mass and compression of the stenotic trachea by the mass , but there was no apparent communication between the esophagus and trachea .
laboratory data indicated mild normocytic anemia and elevated c - reactive protein . among tumor markers ,
an elevation of cytokeratin 19 fragment and neuron - specific enolase ( table 1 ) was noted .
the patient was diagnosed with poorly differentiated lung carcinoma by... | a 45-year - old man complaining of cough , dyspnea , and difficulty in swallowing was referred to our hospital .
chest ct scan showed a mediastinal mass compressing the trachea .
he was diagnosed with poorly differentiated lung carcinoma by percutaneous needle biopsy .
bronchoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a tracheoesophageal fistula ( tef ) .
long - lasting febrile neutropenia made it impossible to continue chemotherapy , but a course of radiotherapy ( total 61 gy ) was completed .
the next endoscopy revealed closure of the tef .
chemoradiotherapy ( crt ) has been reported to close tef in esophageal cancer , but the risk of a crt - induced worsening of the fistula has dissuaded physicians from using crt to treat tef in lung cancer patients .
crt may serve as a palliative treatment for tef in lung cancer as well as esophageal cancer . |
7,174 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: bardet - biedl syndrome ( bbs ) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by central obesity , mental impairment , rod - cone dystrophy , polydactyly , hypogonadism in males , and renal abnormalities.1,2 the causative genes have been identified as bbs1 - 14 genes that encode proteins possibly linked to cilia function , but more than 20% of patients have no mutations found.3 the diagnosis is made only by the clinical phenotype with the presence of at least three major symptoms , however , it is often difficult partly because of age - dependent development of some symptoms . in the western countries , the prevalence of this disease ranges from 1/13,500 to 1/160,000.3 by contrast ,
only a few japanese patients have been reported in the english - language literature.46 renal fibrosis is one of the most devastating symptoms , ultimately leading to chronic renal failure requiring hemodialysis.7 the incidence of renal dysfunction or anomalies in previous reports varies considerably ranging from 20% to universal occurrence.2,7 an early detection of such abnormalities may be important for patients and guardians to prepare them .
it may also be useful for prompt correct diagnosis of bbs , since the diagnosis of this disease is based on the accumulation of major symptoms as described above .
we now report that two japanese patients with bbs had normal bun and creatinine level but elevated levels of cystatin c , a sensitive marker of glomerular filtration rate ( gfr ) .
a 20-year - old man ( patient 1 ) had mental retardation ( minimental state examination 23 ; normal > 24 ) , rod - cone dystrophy , central obesity ( height 158 cm , weight 63 kg , and bmi 25.2 ) and hypogonadism since the age of 5 years .
his blood pressure was 131/85 mmhg , and his heart rate was 61 beats / min .
. a 16-year - old boy ( patient 2 ) , the younger brother of patient 1 , had polydactyly in addition to the symptoms described above ( height 165 cm , weight 93 kg , and bmi 34.2 ) .
his blood pressure was 128/61 mmhg , and his heart... | bardet - biedl syndrome ( bbs ) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by central obesity , mental impairment , rod - cone dystrophy , polydactyly , hypogonadism in males , and renal abnormalities .
the causative genes have been identified as bbs1 - 14 . in the western countries , the prevalence of this disease ranges from 1/13,500 to 1/160,000 , while only a few japanese patients have been reported in the english - language literature .
the incidence of renal dysfunction or anomalies in previous reports varies considerably ranging from 20% to universal occurrence .
we here report that two japanese patients who had bbs with normal bun and creatinine levels had elevated levels of cystatin c , a sensitive marker of glomerular filtration rate .
a urine albumin level increased only in the elder patient .
thus , cystatin c may be useful for detecting renal abnormalities in patients with an apparent normal renal function . because this disease is diagnosed by accumulation of symptoms ,
such a sensitive marker might help early diagnosis of bbs . |
7,175 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: decades of targeted studies and recent progress in phosphoproteomics has resulted in a large body of protein phosphorylation data ( 2 ) .
determining how these phosphorylation sites change through time , for example during the cell cycle or following exposure to extracellular stimuli is now possible with techniques such as quantitative mass spectrometry ( 3 ) .
however , it remains difficult to determine which of the 518 human kinases is responsible for the phosphorylation of an observed site ; a glance at the phospho.elm database reveals that only about a quarter of known in vivo phosphorylation sites have been assigned as substrates of a specific kinase , and this fraction is constantly decreasing ( 2 ) .
this has motivated the development of numerous computational methods for predicting kinase substrate relations , for example , scansite ( 4 ) , netphosk ( 5,6 ) , predikin ( 7 ) , predphospho ( 8) gps ( 9 ) , ppsp ( 10 ) and kinasephos ( 11 ) .
these methods all rely on consensus sequence motifs recognized by the active site of the enzymes , represented by either position - specific scoring matrices ( pssms ) , neural networks , support vector machines or other machine - learning representations .
however , kinase specificity is known to also depend on other factors , such as auxiliary protein interactions , scaffolds , coexpression and colocalization ( collectively referred to as
we recently introduced a computational framework , networkin , which uses a probabilistic protein association network [ string ( 12 ) ] to model the context of kinases and substrates ; combined with consensus sequence motifs , this gave a 2.5-fold leap in prediction accuracy over previous methods ( 13 ) . here , we present a database of predicted kinase
substrate relations based on the latest human phosphoproteome and protein association network from the phospho.elm ( 2 ) , phosphosite ( 14 ) and string ( 12 ) databases .
this database is available via a web interface at http://networkin.info , which enables the user to query... | protein kinases control cellular responses by phosphorylating specific substrates .
recent proteome - wide mapping of protein phosphorylation sites by mass spectrometry has discovered thousands of in vivo sites . systematically assigning all 518 human kinases to all these sites
is a challenging problem .
the networkin database ( http://networkin.info ) integrates consensus substrate motifs with context modelling for improved prediction of cellular kinase substrate relations . based on the latest human phosphoproteome from the phospho.elm and phosphosite databases ,
the resource offers insight into phosphorylation - modulated interaction networks . here
, we describe how networkin can be used for both global and targeted molecular studies . via
the web interface users can query the database of precomputed kinase
substrate relations or obtain predictions on novel phosphoproteins .
the database currently contains a predicted phosphorylation network with 20 224 site - specific interactions involving 3978 phosphoproteins and 73 human kinases from 20 families . |
7,176 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: high - density lipoprotein ( hdl ) , known as antiatherosclerotic lipoprotein , is also involved in innate immunity .
for instance , hdl binds to lipopolysaccharides ( lps ) and lipoteichoic acid ( lta ) derived from microorganisms and neutralizes the physiological activity of these molecules [ 2 , 3 ] .
additionally , hdl is known to have a bactericidal activity toward yersinia enterocolitica serotype o:3 ; this activity is mediated by the complement system .
mycobacterium avium ( m. avium ) is a species of nontuberculous mycobacteria and causes opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts .
although the incidence of m. avium infection is increasing worldwide , its pathogenicity remains poorly understood unlike that of m. tuberculosis .
, cholesterol performs an important function in the invasion and survival of mycobacteria inside macrophages [ 711 ] .
cholesterol accumulation in the host cell membrane is observed at the entry point of m. tuberculosis and of other mycobacteria , and cholesterol depletion inhibits the invasion of cells by mycobacteria .
after phagocytosis of mycobacteria , they are enveloped by the cell membrane containing cholesterol - rich domains ; tryptophan aspartate - containing coat protein ( taco ) is recruited to the phagosomes and prevents the fusion of these organelles with lysosomes .
consequently , the engulfed mycobacteria evade degradation by lysosomes and survive inside the host cell .
the invading mycobacteria modulate lipid metabolism in the host cell and promote formation of lipid droplets ( lds ) , which are mainly composed of neutral lipids such as triacylglycerol and cholesteryl ester .
lds physiologically contribute to lipid storage and lipid metabolism and are available to mycobacteria as a carbon source [ 10 , 14 ] .
scavenger receptor type b1 ( sr - b1 ) , a receptor of apolipoprotein a - i ( apoa - i ) present in hdl as a main component , is generally known to perform the function of transferring esterified cholesterol from matured hdl into the cytosol in... | high - density lipoprotein ( hdl ) is involved in innate immunity toward various infectious diseases . concerning bacteria ,
hdl is known to bind to lipopolysaccharide ( lps ) and to neutralize its physiological activity . on the other hand
, cholesterol is known to play an important role in mycobacterial entry into host cells and in survival in the intracellular environment .
however , the pathogenicity of mycobacterium avium ( m. avium ) infection , which tends to increase worldwide , remains poorly studied .
here we report that hdl indicated a stronger interaction with m. avium than that with other gram - negative bacteria containing abundant lps .
a binding of apolipoprotein ( apo ) a - i , the main protein component of hdl , with a specific lipid of m. avium might participate in this interaction . hdl did not have a direct bactericidal activity toward m. avium but attenuated the engulfment of m. avium by thp-1 macrophages .
hdl also did not affect bacterial killing after ingestion of live m. avium by thp-1 macrophage .
furthermore , hdl strongly promoted the formation of lipid droplets in m. avium - infected thp-1 macrophages .
these observations provide new insights into the relationship between m. avium infection and host lipoproteins , especially hdl .
thus , hdl may help m. avium to escape from host innate immunity . |
7,177 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the promotion as an associate professor ( ap ) represents the final academic step followed only by a full professorship at german universities .
the academic degree of an associate professor is invested by faculties to persons , which have received a doctorates degree , have qualified as a professor by writing a habilitation thesis and obtained postdoctoral lecture qualification .
the academic degree as an ap can not be distinguished by outsiders to a full university professor as the special prefix
however , at most of the german medical faculties the nomination for an associate professor does not only involve the completion of a certain time frame , but is also connected to a continuous and outstanding research performance as well as academic teaching . as pabst and strate
have already noticed in 2000 and as an actual wikipedia description of german associate professors ( auerplanmiger professor ) further delineates , that the title of an associate professor is invested above average especially in medicine , next to medical doctorates ( dr.med .
) and assistant professors ( privatdozent ) ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/professur ) , . the requirements for assistant professors to become an associate professor , however , differ substantially between the 35 german medical faculties . in the year 2000
several points for a standardization and simplification of the preconditions to become an associate professor have already been discussed .
the basis for these postulations has been a first appraisal of different parameters of the regulations for associate professors at german medical faculties at that time . to establish a solid comparability
, we performed a systematic qualitative as well as quantitative scoring of different parameters of the requirements to become an associate professor at german medical faculties for the first time .
inquiries of the regulations to become an associate professor ( ap ) the ap - regulations have been downloaded of the respective internet sites of the different german... | background : first quantitative evaluation of the requirements for the promotion as associate professor ( ap ) at german medical faculties material and methods : analysis of the ap - regulations of german medical faculties according to a validated scoring system , which has been adapted to this study.results : the overall scoring for the ap - requirements at 35 german medical faculties was 13.50.6 of 20 possible scoring points ( 95% confidence interval 12.2 - 14.7 ) . more than 88% of the ap - regulations demand sufficient performance in teaching and research with adequate scientific publication .
furthermore , 83% of the faculties expect an expert review of the candidates performance .
conference presentations required as an assistant professor as well as the reduction of the minimum time as an assistant professor do only play minor roles .
conclusion : the requirements for assistant professors to get nominated as an associate professor at german medical faculties are high with an only small range . in detail , however , it can be seen that there still exists large heterogeneity , which hinders equal opportunities and career possibilities .
these data might be used for the ongoing objective discussion . |
7,178 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in the present work , the possibility of increasing the lifespan of mammalians and humans by transplantation of the genetically identical ( or similar ) stem cells with the lower number of the genomic errors to the old recipients is investigated .
the idea of this method follows directly from informational theory of aging in which the degradation ( error accumulation ) of the genetic information in cells is considered a basic reason of aging ( see more detailed information in discussion ) .
informational theory of aging links the accumulation of genomic errors in cells with a decrease of their functionality , which in turn leads to decreasing functionality of whole organism ( vitality ) and finally to increasing probability of its death .
it is well known that the stem cells are a source for many different types of cells . as a result of the transplantation of the stem cells of young donors with the low number of genomic errors the increase of the number of various cells with the reduced number of genomic errors and improving of the overall functionality of the organism ( vitality )
can be expected . however , where can one get the genetically identical stem cells with the lower number of the genomic errors ?
the cryopreservation of the animal 's ( human 's ) own stem cells that have been isolated at a young age is one of the possible techniques .
indeed , it seems obvious that in the young cells stored in cryogenic conditions the number of genomic errors will be lower than in the cells of the old organism . as the source of the various types of stem cells ( mesenchymal and hematopoietic ) the bone marrow ( bm ) can be used .
it is necessary to emphasize that all the basic operations of this variant of our method ( figure 1):isolation ( collection ) of bm , cryopreservation of bm , bm autotransplantation to recipient in old age , are well established procedures , with many years of application experience and are approved for medical use in most of countries [ 27 ] .
isolation ( collection ) of bm ,... | the method of lifespan extension that is a practical application of the informational theory of aging is proposed . in this theory , the degradation ( error accumulation ) of the genetic information in cells
is considered a main cause of aging . according to it
, our method is based on the transplantation of genetically identical ( or similar ) stem cells with the lower number of genomic errors to the old recipients . for humans and large mammals ,
this method can be realized by cryopreservation of their own stem cells , taken in a young age , for the later autologous transplantation in old age . to test this method experimentally , we chose laboratory animals of relatively short lifespan ( mouse ) .
because it is difficult to isolate the required amount of the stem cells ( e.g. , bone marrow ) without significant damage for animals , we used the bone marrow transplantation from sacrificed inbred young donors .
it is shown that the lifespan extension of recipients depends on level of their genetic similarity ( syngeneity ) with donors .
we have achieved the lifespan increase of the experimental mice by 34% when the transplantation of the bone marrow with high level of genetic similarity was used . |
7,179 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: oligochaete worms , as the second largest group of the annelida , occur in a wide variety of freshwater environments . within this diverse group ,
limnodrilus hoffmeisteri claparde , 1862 ( oligochaeta : tubificinae ) , is one of the most common and abundant aquatic oligochaetes .
like all other oligochaetes , the species is a hermaphrodite , with a complex reproductive system .
typically , each body segment possesses 4 bundles of chaetae ( chitinous bristles projecting from the body ) .
the chaetae , vary considerably in size and shape between families , and consequently are used extensively in identification .
the life cycle of this species includes a stage that involves shedding of eggs into aquatic or moist environments with subsequent development into earthworms .
these worms are capable of producing high population densities in paddy fields , eutrophic lakes , and rivers .
thus , bathing , picnicking , or field working without protection measures may bring the potential risk of ingress .
along with helminths and parasitic nematodes , occasional cases of non - parasitic worm infections ( caused by enchytraeus sp .
however , aquatic oligochaete human infections have not been reported in china up till now . in this study
, we are reporting a case of oligochaete nasal infection in a 25-year - old chinese man .
after detailed microscopic examinations and molecular identification , the infected specimen was identified as l. hoffmeisteri .
the infectious agent was eliminated and was no longer detectable in the patient s nasal cavities after treatment with zentel ( albendazole ) .
these data will assist clinicians to be aware of this diagnosis and properly guide preventable measures to those who are in risk ( such as aquaculture farmers , fishery workers , and ornamental fish hobbyists ) .
the patient was a 25-year - old male residing in zhangjiakou city , hebei province , china employed by a coalmine machinery factory .
he initially presented with severe nasal itching , rhinorrhea , and continuous sneezing... | the infection by limnodrilus hoffmeisteri claparde , 1862 ( oligochaeta : tubificinae ) in humans is relatively uncommon .
the present report is to describe an incidental human infection with oligochaetes in the nasal cavity of a chinese man , a 25-year - old man residing in zhangjiakou city , hebei province , china presenting with nose bleed , severe itching , continuous sneezing , and rhinorrhea .
a lot of oligochaete worms were found in the nasal discharge of the patient .
the detected worms were identified as limnodrilus hoffmeisteri ( annelida : oligochaeta ) based on morphological and molecular characteristics .
this incidental l. hoffmeisteri nasal infection is the first case in china and indicates that oligochaete worms can be encountered in humans . |
7,180 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: plantarflexor muscles play a critical role in ankle stabilization , and their combined
eccentric contraction decreases the rate of tibial advancement during midstance and causes
the foot and tibia to roll off over the forefoot rocker during terminal stance1 .
limited ankle dorsiflexion range of motion
( rom ) is associated with various cumulative injuries and also causes compensatory changes
during walking2 . for normal
walking ,
proper ankle dorsiflexion rom is necessary to absorb the body weight and contributes to the
forward body movement during the stance phase of the gait cycle1 .
ambulation on a sloped surface requires a shift towards
increased ankle dorsiflexion and more muscle activation of the knee and ankle joint for
stability3 .
deficits in ankle
dorsiflexion rom can come from restraints in contractile or noncontractile tissue , and
abnormal tissue flexibility requires greater force , which leads to energy dissipation1 , 4 .
mobilization with movement ( mwm ) is widely used to improve the accessory motion of joints ;
however , it has a limitation in that it can only be applied by a therapist in a physical
therapy room7 .
recently , mwm has been
modified by using tape to provide a posterior inferior talar glide , which can cause passive
movement by substituting for a therapist 's force8 .
a lot of physical therapists have often employed mwm using tape to
increase ankle dorsiflexion , but how incline walking with modified mwm using tape influences
the foot and ankle biomechanics is still unclear , and no information has been gathered about
the muscle activities . an inclined surface is often used as a therapeutic intervention
because it requires additional muscle action and increases the concentric activity of the
plantarflexor muscles9 .
biomechanical
alterations resulting from clinicians ' utilization of modified mwm using tape have the
potential to change the plantarflexor and dorsiflexor muscle activities .
therefore , the
purpose of this study was to... | [ purpose ] this study compared the emg activities of the plantarflexor and dorsiflexor
muscles during inclined walking with and without modified mobilization with movement
( modified mwm ) using tape in women with limited ankle dorsiflexion . [ subjects ] fifteen
women with limited dorsiflexion in their feet ( 22 feet in total ) were recruited for this
study .
[ methods ] the subjects walked with and without modified mwm using tape on a
treadmill at 6 degrees with a speed of 1.25 m / s for 5 minutes .
the emg activities of the
medial gastrocnemius ( gcm ) and tibialis anterior ( ta ) muscles were measured using a
surface emg system . [ results ] during incline walking with modified mwm using tape , the
mean emg activity of the gcm significantly increased , and that of the ta decreased between
heel strike and heel off .
there was no difference between heel off and toe off in the two
muscles . [ conclusions ] modified mwm
using tape on the talus during incline walking could
alter the muscle activities of the gcm and ta between heel strike and heel off in women
with limited ankle dorsiflexion . |
7,181 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: since bacteria gain access to the periodontal pocket , they can invade the epithelium , connective tissue and radicular hard tissue , such as cementum and dentin , of periodontally diseased teeth1516,18 .
these sites can serve as bacterial reservoirs from which periodontal bacteria recolonize root surfaces after periodontal therapy16 .
depth of bacteria penetration into the dentinal tubules is variable and frequently can not be reached by mechanical periodontal therapy .
bacterial invasion of dentinal tubules commonly occurs when dentin is exposed following a breach in cementum integrity during periodontal disease12,7,11 .
bacterial products can diffuse through the dentinal tubules towards the periodontal pocket and produce inflammatory changes that will influence periodontal repair and may be responsible for persistence of the periodontal infection .
this study was undertaken in an effort to discuss the importance of dentinal tubule invasion by bacteria originating from periodontal pockets in periodontally diseased human teeth .
the experimental group consisted of 10 periodontally diseased human teeth with extensive loss of periodontal supporting tissue , which were extracted from 10 fifty - year - old male patients , randomly selected from a private dental office .
all participants were fully informed on research purposes and methodology and signed an informed consent form for participation in the study .
care was taken to avoid mechanical damage to root surface . immediately after extraction , blood and saliva
the specimens were fixed in a 10% neutral buffered formalin solution and decalcified in formic sodium citrate acid .
root segments were prepared for histological analysis in the usual manner , i.e. , paraffin embedding , serial sectioning to an average thickness of 6 m and staining by the brown and brenn technique4 .
the histological examination of periodontally diseased human teeth demonstrated that loss of cementum due to periodontal disease exposed the dentinal tubules , allowing penetration of... | this study demonstrated that a significant number of bacteria is present in the radicular dentinal tubules of periodontally diseased human teeth .
ten periodontally diseased teeth were prepared and stained by brown and brenn technique for histological examination .
bacteria were detected in all teeth .
it is suggested that bacteria may invade dentinal tubules exposed to periodontal pocket and are very hard to be eliminated by conventional mechanical and chemical periodontal therapy . contaminated dentinal tubules of periodontally diseased teeth
can thus act as active bacterial reservoirs to promote recolonization of mechanically treated root surfaces , which could interfere with the periodontal healing and progression of the disease . |
7,182 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: about 30 % of people with congenital hearing loss are syndromic and the remaining 70 % are non - syndromic .
in addition , most elderly people develop age - related ( late - onset ) hearing loss [ 13 ] . in general , these hearing losses have been classified as different diseases due to distinct pathogeneses [ 1 , 2 ] .
sensorineural hearing losses are caused by impairments of inner ears and are difficult to cure due to the location and complex morphology of inner ears [ 1 , 2 ] .
sensorineural hearing loss is a clinically heterogeneous disease leading to negative impacts on quality of life ( qol ) in all generations .
inner ears have been analyzed in order to clarify the pathogeneses of sensorineural hearing losses .
the organ of corti contains two kinds of sensory cells [ inner hair cells ( ihcs ) and outer hair cells ( ohcs ) ] and plays an important role in mechanotransduction , by which sound stimuli are converted into electric stimuli .
auditory information from the sensory cells is transferred to spiral ganglion neurons ( sgns ) as the primary carriers and is eventually transferred to the auditory cortex in the cerebrum [ 1 , 2 ] .
the sv consists of marginal cells , melanocytes ( also known as intermediate cells ) and basal cells , and has been shown to maintain high levels of potassium ion for endocochlear potential ( ep ) [ 4 , 5 ] .
melanocytes in the inner ear are located specifically in the sv , and defects in melanocytes lead to impaired ep levels resulting in hearing loss .
thus , disturbance of these constituent cells in inner ears has been shown to cause hearing losses .
vestibular hair cells covered with otoconia play an important role in mechanotransduction , by which gravity impulses are converted into neural impulses .
thus , the vestibule containing hair cells and an otolith is one of the organs responsible for balance .
impairments of hearing and balance both major problems in the field of occupational and environmental health are caused by the intricate interplay of genetic , aging... | impairments of hearing and balance are major problems in the field of occupational and environmental health .
such impairments have previously been reported to be caused by genetic and environmental factors . however , their mechanisms have not been fully clarified . on the other hand ,
the inner ear contains spiral ganglion neurons ( sgns ) in the organ of corti , which serve as the primary carriers of auditory information from sensory cells to the auditory cortex in the cerebrum .
inner ears also contain a vestibule in the vicinity of the organ of corti one of the organs responsible for balance .
thus , inner ears could be a good target to clarify the pathogeneses of sensorineural hearing losses and impaired balance . in our previous studies with c - ret knock - in mice and endothelin receptor b ( ednrb ) knock - out mice
, it was found that syndromic hearing losses involved postnatal neurodegeneration of sgns caused by impairments of c - ret and ednrb , which play important roles in neuronal development and maintenance of the enteric nervous system .
the organ of corti and the vestibule in inner ears also suffer from degeneration caused by environmental stresses including noise and heavy metals , resulting in impairments of hearing and balance . in this review ,
we introduce impairments of hearing and balance caused by genetic and environmental factors and focus on impairments of sgns and the vestibule in inner ears as the pathogeneses caused by these factors . |
7,183 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: multiple myeloma is a malignant b - cell disorder characterized by proliferation of atypical plasma cells in bone marrow with or without the presence of monoclonal immunoglobulin protein in serum and/or urine .
multiple myeloma has correlation with plasmacytoma , which is a mass of plasma cells found outside of bone marrow that needs medical intervention with radiotherapy or chemotherapy .
while multiple myeloma frequently accompanies plasmacytoma at the time of diagnosis , plasmacytoma precedes multiple myeloma in some cases .
the disease entity called solitary plasmacytoma exists in 4% of plasma cell tumors [ 5 , 6 ] , and approximately 4050% of patients with solitary plasmacytoma will develop multiple myeloma .
hence , plasmacytoma is an early form or an accompanying disease of myeloma , and the data regarding the clinical behavior of plasmacytoma are quite accumulated .
however , not much is known about the cellular biology of plasmacytoma per se . fortunately , we previously succeeded in establishing two cell lines with different tropism from a single patient .
briefly , 14 weeks after injecting mononuclear cells obtained from multiple myeloma patient 's bone marrow in a nrg / scid mouse via tail vein , tumor developed at subcutis of the mouse .
the engraftment of myeloma cells into mouse bone marrow ( bm ) was also observed .
after separation and culturing cells from subcutis and bm , we succeeded in the establishing of two cell lines ( snu_mm1393_sc and snu_mm1393_bm ) from a single patient with different tropism .
snu_mm1393_bm and snu_mm1393_sc showed a high degree of resistance against bortezomib compared to u266 cell line .
snu_mm1393_bm had the greater lethality compared to snu_mm1393_sc . from genetic perspective , we believe that unique somatic mutations may allow tumor cells to adapt and survive in tumor microenvironment .
in other words , there may be specific genetic changes that contribute to tumor tropism .
hence , in this study , we tried to characterize genomic profile specific... | background .
previously we established two cell lines ( snu_mm1393_bm and snu_mm1393_sc ) from different tissues ( bone marrow and subcutis ) of mice which were injected with single patient 's myeloma sample .
we tried to define genetic changes specific for each cell line using whole exome sequencing ( wes ) .
materials and methods .
we extracted dna from snu_mm1393_bm and snu_mm1393_sc and performed wes .
for single nucleotide variants ( snv ) calling , we used varscan2 .
annotation of mutation was performed using annovar .
results .
when calling of somatic mutations was performed , 68 genes were nonsynonymously mutated only in snu_mm1393_sc , while 136 genes were nonsynonymously mutated only in snu_mm1393_bm .
kiaa1199 , fry , ap3b2 , and optc were representative genes specifically mutated in snu_mm1393_sc . when comparison analysis was performed using tcga data , mutational pattern of snu_mm1393_sc resembled that of melanoma mostly .
pathway analysis using kegg database showed that mutated genes specific of snu_mm1393_bm were related to differentiation , while those of snu_mm1393_sc were related to tumorigenesis .
conclusion .
we found out genetic changes that underlie tropism of myeloma cells using wes .
genetic signature of cutaneous plasmacytoma shares that of melanoma implying common mechanism for skin tropism .
kiaa1199 , fry , ap3b2 , and optc are candidate genes for skin tropism of cancers . |
7,184 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: during the last decades , there have been great advancements in the field of preventive medicine .
research has demonstrated that nutrition plays a crucial role in the prevention of chronic diseases .
it proposes to consider food not only vital to survive , but also a mean for mental and physical well - being , contributing to the prevention and reduction of risk factors for diseases .
however , there is evidence that the concept was believed by ancient physicians as well .
rhazes said ; as long as a disease could be treated with food , medicine should be avoided
we carried out a review of avicenna s canon of medicine and rhazes books for the definition of food and drug and similar concepts of functional food .
rhazes has a book called manafe al - aghziyeh , in which he writes about the medicinal benefits of different nutrition .
five concepts ( food , drug , medicinal food , nutritional medicine and antidote or poison ) were noted in these books .
there are many recommendations on food for the prevention and treatment of diseases in tpm books , which can be the basis for novel research studies . | background : during the last decades , there have been great advancements in the field of preventive medicine .
research has demonstrated that nutrition plays a crucial role in the prevention of chronic diseases .
the concept of functional food was first introduced in japan during the 1980s .
it proposes to consider food not only vital to survive , but also a mean for mental and physical well - being , contributing to the prevention and reduction of risk factors for diseases . however , there is evidence that the concept was believed by ancient physicians as well .
one of the traditional systems of medicines is traditional persian medicine ( tpm ) .
rhazes said ; as long as a disease could be treated with food , medicine should be avoidedmethods : we carried out a review of avicenna s canon of medicine and rhazes books for the definition of food and drug and similar concepts of functional food .
we listed the identified concepts along with their examples.results:the classification of food and their therapeutic use were explained in canon of medicine .
rhazes has a book called
manafe al - aghziyeh , in which he writes about the medicinal benefits of different nutrition .
five concepts ( food , drug , medicinal food , nutritional medicine and antidote or poison ) were noted in these books.conclusion:there are many recommendations on food for the prevention and treatment of diseases in tpm books , which can be the basis for novel research studies . |
7,185 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the patients have various clinical features depending on the size and deleted region on chromosome 13 .
the 13q syndrome is characterized into 3 groups : group 1 in which proximal region ( q12.2-q31 ) is involved in deletion and patients tend to appear with minor abnormalities , mild to moderate mental retardation and susceptible to retinoblastoma .
group 2 included those with proximal to q32 ( q12.2-q32 ) , these patients appear with major malfunctions , moderate to severe mental retardation and microcephaly and growth retardation .
group 3 comprised those with q33-q34 ; these patients have severe mental retardation without major malfunctions and growth retardation .
a 5-year - old boy was referred for genetic counseling with different phenotypical features [ table 1 ] .
the patient was the product of a full - term pregnancy and normal vaginal delivery .
he had seizure beginning from 2 months ; brain computed tomography ( ct ) scan displayed agenesis of vermis of the cerebellum [ figure 1 ] , the clinical features in this case were : clinical features of the patients ( a ) note to the ptosis , down slanted palpebral fissures , strabismus , and high nasal bridge .
( d ) agenesis of the vermis cerebellum cleft palate , microcephaly ( head circumference of 45 cm [ < -2 sd ( 2% ) ] ) , moderate to severe mental retardation , speech difficulty , asymmetric in left skulp , ptosis , club feet , down slanted palperbal fissures , hypospadias , neurodevelopmental delay , syndactyly in both hands fingers , short metacarp , overriding of the fourth toes , strabismus , left blepharophimosis in the left side , high nasal bridge , thin lips , micrognathia , no ovala , dental decay , small ears , and hypoplastic thumb .
a 12-year - old girl was referred with dysmorphic features , mild mental retardation , and neurodevelopmental delay [ table 1 ] .
the girl was the product of a normal pregnancy and birth weight and height were 3.5 kg and 49 cm , respectively .
head circumference was 53 cm normal for the age of 12 years , and... | patients with 13q deletion syndrome are characterized with different phenotypical features depending on the size and location of the deleted region on chromosome 13 .
these patients fall into three groups : in group 1 , deleted region is in the proximal and does not extend into q32 ; in group 2 , deleted region involves proximal to the q32 and in group 3 q33-q34 is deleted .
we present two cases with 13q syndrome with two different deleted region and different severity on clinical features : one case with interstitial deletion belongs to the group 1 with mild mental retardation and minor malformations and the other case with terminal deletion belongs to group 3 with moderate to severe mental retardation and major malformations . |
7,186 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pentacyclic triterpenoids have generally been utilized as biomarkers to trace genetic sources of organic matter in sedimentary environments , petroleum exploration , or paleoenvironmental reconstructions of biome changes that document climate change [ 14 ] .
the oleananes , ursanes , fernanes , lupanes , and their derivatives , widely distributed mainly as the oxygenated forms in many varieties of higher plant species , belong to this class of compounds [ 410 ] .
their tendencies to also resist biodegradation and occurrence in sediments suggest the potential application as specific higher plant derived biomarkers [ 9 , 10 ] .
however , reports of pentacyclic triterpenol methyl ethers ( ptmes ) in sedimentary environments are limited to lakes [ 2 , 4 , 12 ] .
other reports have assessed sedimentary input of terrestrial and/or planktonic organic matter with triterpenoid natural products ( e.g. , [ 1315 ] ) and biomass source tracers to smoke aerosols ( e.g. , burning of sugar cane ) .
reports of triterpenoid esters in sediments are also limited , because typical extract analyses generally involved saponification as a preparative step .
plant wax analyses without hydrolysis do reveal triterpenol esters as part of the wax esters in epicuticular waxes ( e.g. , [ 17 , 18 ] ) . under aerobic conditions ,
the transformation of plant - derived triterpenoids often involves oxidation , dehydration , hydrolysis , decarboxylation , ring opening , and aromatization reactions .
for instance , in coal forming environments , higher plant triterpenoids generally undergo aromatization starting from ring a , triggered by the elimination of the oxygenated functionality at c-3 and proceeding to rings d / e [ 2022 ] .
the ptmes , which are natural products , appear to be more resistant to environmental alteration than the triterpenol esters and thus may be good biomarkers .
triterpenol esters , on the other hand , may be useful for assessing early diagenesis ( i.e. , hydrolysis ) of terrestrial higher plant detritus during river... | pentacyclic triterpenol methyl ethers ( ptmes ) , germanicol methyl ether ( miliacin ) , 3-methoxyfern-9(11)-ene ( arundoin ) , -amyrin methyl ether ( iso - sawamilletin ) , and 3-methoxytaraxer-14-ene ( sawamilletin or crusgallin ) were characterized in surface sediments of the cross - river system using gas chromatography - mass spectrometry ( gc - ms ) .
triterpenol esters ( mainly - and -amyrinyl acetates and hexanoates , and lupeyl acetate and hexanoate ) were also found .
these distinct compounds are useful for assessing diagenesis that can occur during river transport of organic detritus .
poaceae , mainly gramineae and elaeis guineensis higher plant species , are proposed as primary sources for the ptmes and esters in the sediments .
ptmes are biomarkers of specific higher plant subspecies , while the triterpenol esters are indicators of early diagenetic alteration of higher plant detritus . |
7,187 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: immune checkpoint inhibition with the anti - ctla-4 antibody ipilimumab or the pd-1 antibodies pembrolizumab and nivolumab has become a valuable and effective treatment in metastatic melanoma .
all substances have demonstrated significant and durable tumor responses with significant prolonged progress - free and overall survival .
side effects of a therapy with ipilimumab are mainly related to the mode of action of the drug resulting in activation of the immune system against autoantigens .
immune - mediated adverse events have been reported in 10 - 15% of the patients and primarily manifest as skin rash , diarrhea and colitis , hepatitis and endocrinopathies .
however , side effects , particularly endocrinopathies are often difficult to diagnose in early stages because of their lack of specific symptoms .
we present the case of a 34-year old female patient with metastatic malignant melanoma undergoing treatment with the anti - ctla-4 antibody ipilimumab .
six days after the third infusion , the patient reported a persistent headache since 2 d. she interpreted this symptom as a symptom of premenstrual syndrome as she was waiting for her menstrual period and had already experienced similar headaches .
laboratory testing was inconspicuous and showed normal values for routine parameters and for thyroid - stimulating hormone ( tsh ) .
a prescription for ibuprofen ( administered 2 times daily in a dosage of 400 mg ) was given which helped to manage the pain at first .
two days later , as the headache did not subside , the patient was examined again .
she then presented a light periorbital swelling and was examined from a neurologist and an ophthalmologist who both could not find any cause for the symptoms .
a ct scan of the head and brain , a cerebrospinal fluid puncture and a measurement of the intraocular pressure were performed and did not show any abnormalities .
pain medication was adapted and the patient left with the requirement to contact us if the headache would get worse . almost a week later , the... | abstractipilimumab is an anti - ctla-4 antibody that is approved for the treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma .
side - effects are mostly immune - mediated and in many cases the lack of specific symptoms leads to delayed diagnosis and treatment of adverse events .
we present the case of a female patient who experienced an uncommon combination of adverse reactions while undergoing therapy with ipilimumab and where the absence of specificity of the symptoms led to late diagnosis and treatment of side effects .
autoimmune disease was neither associated with tumor response nor with prolonged survival . |
7,188 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: thyroid dysfunction results in changes in cardiac contractility , cardiac output , myocardial oxygen consumption , systemic vascular resistance , and blood pressure [ 1 , 2 ] .
the relationship between abnormal thyroid function and coronary heart disease ( chd ) has been recognized for a long time , especially in hypothyroidism status due to the associated hypercholesterolemia and hypertension [ 3 , 4 ] .
even subclinical hypothyroidism and subclinical hyperthyroidism have been related to increased risk of chd and mortality , although still controversial [ 7 , 8 ] .
results of some cross - sectional studies of patients undergoing coronary angiography suggested that free thyroxine ( t4 ) or free triiodothyronine ( t3 ) level was inversely and thyroid stimulating hormone ( tsh ) concentration was positively associated with the presence of chd or the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in euthyroid subjects [ 911 ] .
by contrast , one study reported that free t3 level was positively associated with the presence and severity of chd .
another study showed that high level tsh in the reference range was not an independent predictor of chd .
all these studies were conducted in euthyroid subjects with small samples , and the results were conflicting .
the hunt study , a prospective population - based cohort study in norway , found that low thyroid function within the clinically normal range was associated with increased mortality from chd in women during 12-year follow - up .
however , they found no association of thyroid function with the risk of being hospitalized with myocardial infarction
. therefore , the morbidity finding of the hunt study does not confirm the suggestion that thyroid function in the normal range is associated with the risk of chd .
more studies are needed to examine the relationship between thyroid function and chd in euthyroid individuals . from a clinical point of view
, the effect of thyroid dysfunction on prevalent chd may be more important than the effect of the thyroid function in the... | this study investigated if free t4 and tsh concentrations or thyroid function categories were associated with prevalent chd and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in a population undergoing coronary angiography .
this was a cross - sectional study including 1799 patients who were consecutively admitted and underwent coronary angiography .
we evaluated the severity of coronary atherosclerosis using gensini score . in the entire study population ,
free t4 level was inversely associated with prevalent chd ( or = 0.95 , 95% ci 0.910.99 , p = 0.01 ) and the natural log - transformed gensini score ( ln(gensini score ) ) ( = 0.03 , 95% ci 0.050.01 , p = 0.005 ) . the odds of chd increased gradually across hyperthyroidism , subclinical hypothyroidism , and overt hypothyroidism groups using the euthyroid group as the reference , and the trend is borderline significant ( p for trend = 0.051 ) .
when comparing to the euthyroid group , ln(gensini score ) of the overt hypothyroidism group was significantly higher ( p = 0.009 ) , but the trend was not significant ( p for trend = 0.08 ) .
a significant association of thyroid function with chd or ln(gensini score ) in euthyroid patients was not observed .
the present study demonstrated an association of thyroid function with prevalent chd and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in a population undergoing coronary angiography .
however , this association was not observed in euthyroid individuals . |
7,189 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: i wish to point out a need for clarification concerning the methodology utilized in the study
eye tracking detects disconjugate eye movements associated with structural traumatic brain injury and concussion by samadani
et al . , 2015
.
the authors state that binocular eye movements were recorded using a single - camera infrared - based video - oculography technique ( eyelink 1000 , sr research , ontario , canada ) and that binocular disconjugate characteristics were analyzed without calibration of eye orientation .
the authors claim that their variance - based disconjugacy metric was sensitive to the severity of a concussive brain injury and to the status of recovery after the original injury .
the eyelink 1000 system is an excellent eye tracker with a single high resolution camera and an infrared light source affixed to the camera .
a typical recording setup consists of a computer monitor with which the visual stimuli are presented to the subject and the camera unit ( placed in front of the monitor base ) with which the eye movement is recorded monocularly or binocularly .
the system has an option of easily outputting image - based , uncalibrated eye coordinates with hundreds of units representing 1 of eye rotation .
the concern i would raise with samadani
et al.s paper is the unclearness of the relationship between their metric and binocular disconjugacy .
logically , for an identical amount of eye rotation , any asymmetry in the spatial relationship that the camera or the infrared light source has with the two fellow eyes would result in different extents of relocation of the images of the pupils or corneal reflections .
asymmetries exist because there is a physical separation between the two eyes as well as between the camera and the infrared light source .
in addition , although the biometric characteristics of eyes are highly symmetrical within individuals , they are not perfectly symmetrical
and a 12% non - conformity in corneal curvature or axial length is not uncommon , which further... | this correspondence points out a need for clarification concerning the methodology utilized in the study
eye tracking detects disconjugate eye movements associated with structural traumatic brain injury and concussion
, recently published in
journal of neurotrauma .
the authors of the paper state that binocular eye movements were recorded using a single - camera video - oculography technique and that binocular disconjugate characteristics were analyzed without calibration of eye orientation .
it is claimed that a variance - based disconjugacy metric was found to be sensitive to the severity of a concussive brain injury and to the status of recovery after the original injury .
however , the reproducibility of the paper s findings may be challenged simply by the paucity of details in the methodological description .
more importantly , from the information supplied or cited in the paper , it is difficult to evaluate the validity of the potentially interesting conclusions of the paper . |
7,190 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: complications involving the spleen have been reported with infarction , abscess , subcapsular hematoma , rupture , and hyper - reactive malarial splenomegaly ( hms ) or tropical splenomegaly syndrome .
the latter is commonly understood as an immunological reaction from the infected host and may be confused with lymphoproliferative syndromes .
hms is usually described in tropical residents as a result of chronic malarial infection , and is mostly recognized in young and middle - aged adults .
a unique case of hms complicated by splenic infarct affecting a caucasian child is reported .
a 4-year 11-month - old boy from the united states was staying with his family in a tribal region in indonesia in the preceding five months .
he had recurrent febrile illnesses during this period and had been given chloroquine intermittently as prophylaxis , but his general health started to deteriorate about a month before admission .
he was first admitted to a local hospital and was diagnosed to have plasmodium vivax infection .
he was treated with chloroquine ( the exact treatment could not be verified ) but the condition did not improve .
he was also found to have increasing splenomegaly and severe anemia ( lowest hemoglobin recorded , 3.6 g / dl ) .
red cell transfusion was carried out twice before he was evacuated to singapore for further management .
the liver and spleen were grossly enlarged at 6 cm and 8 cm below the costal margins , respectively .
the first full blood counts showed hemoglobin 9.8 g / dl , white cells 5.48 10/l , platelet 123 10/l .
immature trophozoites and gametocytes characteristic of plasmodium falciparum were also seen ( figure 1 ) , with a parasite load of 0.1% .
treatment with atovaquone 500 mg - proguanil 200 mg for three days was commenced .
figure 1photomicrograph of the peripheral blood film with giemsa stain ( 100 ) showing an immature trophozoite ( t ) and a gametocyte ( g ) characteristic of plasmodium falciparum infection .
photomicrograph of the peripheral blood film with giemsa... | a 4-year - old boy from the united states had been staying in indonesia for five months when he presented with fever , severe lethargy , progressive weight loss , and abdominal distension .
he was first diagnosed with plasmodium vivax infection in indonesia and received treatment with chloroquine . however , his condition continued to deteriorate and he required erythrocyte transfusion for severe anemia .
three weeks into his illness , he was found to have low parasitemia with plasmodium falciparum with massive hepatosplenomegaly in singapore .
a splenic infarct was also documented on computed tomography .
treatment with atovaquone - proguanil resulted in stabilization of the hemoglobin level and rapid reduction in splenic size , with clearance of malarial parasites from the bloodstream .
although reported typically in adult tropical residents , hyper - reactive malarial splenomegaly may occasionally be found in the pediatric traveler .
clinicians receiving children returning from the tropical regions should be aware of this potentially life - threatening complication of partially treated malaria . |
7,191 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a nosology of psychosis would need to be based on the knowledge of the causes and pathophysiology of these psychotic symptoms .
the history of the term will be briefly described , followed by a description of its use in the current classification systems for mental disorders and a discussion on the necessity to deconstruct the term , along with the challenges and future prospects for psychosis research .
the term psychosis has been used for about 170 years , and has evolved to reflect the scientific and social contexts of the respective times .
it was first used by the austrian medical doctor ernst von feuchtersleben , who used the term in a textbook published in 1845 .
this reflected the current idea , of the time , of mental disorders being diseases of the mind ( geisteskrankheiten or seelenstrungen in german ) , which von feuchtersleben thought was too narrow and did not convey the idea that it was the interaction between the mind and brain that caused mental disorders .
a later position , strengthening the concept of mental disorders as disorders of the brain , was introduced by griesinger in 1845 .
the term psychosis was soon used by others , and a long and intricate history of its meaning ensued . in the late 19th century , the term was used widely and subdivided as exemplified by wernicke 's distinction between somatopsychoses ( affecting the consciousness of one 's own body ) , autopsychoses ( affecting the consciousness of one 's personality ) , and allopsychoses
while such subdistinctions were the first indication that the term psychosis was not a unitary principle , but needed to be deconstructed into its component symptoms , these terms did not gain widespread acceptance .
more importantly , kraepelin 's dichotomy of psychosis into dementia praecox and manic - depressive insanity became the rule of the day , and the definition of the several dimensions of psychosis became the center of research in the early and mid-20th century .
the concept of jaspers ' layers of mental... | the concept of psychosis has been shaped by traditions in the concepts of mental disorders during the last 170 years .
the term psychosis still lacks a unified definition , but denotes a clinical construct composed of several symptoms .
delusions , hallucinations , and thought disorders are the core clinical features .
the search for a common denominator of psychotic symptoms points toward combinations of neuropsychological mechanisms resulting in reality distortion . to advance the elucidation of the causes and the pathophysiology of the symptoms of psychosis ,
a deconstruction of the term into its component symptoms is therefore warranted .
current research is dealing with the delineation from normality , the genetic underpinnings , and the causes and pathophysiology of the symptoms of psychosis . |
7,192 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: metabolic syndrome ( ms ) is a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus ( dm ) , pre - diabetes , central obesity , dyslipidemia , and high blood pressure ( bp).13 it is estimated that approximately one quarter of the world s population have the syndrome and people with this condition are likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared with people without it.2 even more alarming is the fact that the risk of developing dm is fivefold greater in people with this syndrome.1 in 1976 , wellborn and wearne4 established the link between type 2 diabetes mellitus ( t2 dm ) and cardiovascular disease ( cvd ) .
pyorala5 showed strong links between glucose intolerance , hyperinsulinemia , and coronary heart disease ( chd ) and this link was extended in the 1980s by modan et al6 to include obesity , hypertension , and cvd .
although the pathogenesis is not fully understood , it has been postulated that genetically determined insulin resistance in a setting of suitable environmental factors is the pivotal pathogenic mechanism underlying ms.7 lipoprotein lipase deficiency largely accounts for the lipid abnormalities seen in ms,8 while hypertension is due to enhanced sympathetic activities , salt sensitivity , and increased transmembrane cation transport.9,10 the role of tnf in obesity and insulin resistance has also been described.11 developing nations are witnessing rapid industrialization , urbanization , and increased economic prosperity and the resulting acquisition of the western lifestyle characterized by calorie excess and physical inactivity would provide a suitable milieu for the development of ms in genetically predisposed individuals .
the prevalence of ms is known to vary across the world : age and ethnicity of the populations being studied are also key issues influencing the prevalence.12 cvd is unanimously recognized as the major burden in t2 dm in terms of mortality and morbidity.13,14 unfortunately , myocardial infarction , stroke , and non - ischemic cvd are the causes of death in... | backgroundthe aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of coexistence of metabolic syndrome ( ms ) and type 2 diabetes mellitus ( t2 dm ) on the estimated cardiovascular risk as calculated using the united kingdom prospective diabetic study risk engine ( ukpds - re ) and also to determine the impact of the coexistence of ms and t2 dm on the 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke.methodologythis is a cross - sectional study in which convenience sampling technique was used to recruit 124 consecutive persons with t2 dm and 96 controls using a questionnaire administered technique .
the world health organization ( who ) criterion was used to define ms and the ukpds - re was used to identify persons with increased risk for stroke and those with increased risk for coronary heart disease .
the data obtained were analyzed using spss version 16 .
statistical comparisons were made with chi - square for comparison of proportions .
a p - value of less than 0.05 was taken as statistically significant.resultsfifteen subjects were identified as having an increased 10-year risk for stroke and ten as having an increased risk for a coronary event .
the odds of a t2 dm subject with ms having an increased risk for stroke compared with a t2 dm subject without ms was 0.95791 while the odds of a t2 dm subject with ms developing an increased risk for a coronary event compared with a t2 dm subject without ms was = 3.4513.conclusionms was more common in subjects with t2 dm compared with controls ( irrespective of the diagnostic criteria used ) and ms appears to increase the risk of a coronary event in subjects with t2 dm by threefold . also from this study
, ms did not appear to cause an additional increase in the risk of stroke in subjects with t2 dm . |
7,193 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the sample consisted of 51 right - handed non - demented patients between 40 and 80 years , diagnosed with ipd .
they were presenting at least three cardinal signs of the disorder ( bradykinesia , rest tremor and rigidity ) .
there were 42 males and 9 females with mean ( sd ) age of 53 years ( 9.58 ) .
their educational level ranged from being literate to post graduation . among them , 33 were employed and 18 were retired .
the sample was taken from the movement disorder clinic , department of neurology , at bangur institute of neuroscience and psychiatry , kolkata , india .
those with evidence of parkinsonism plus syndrome ( pps ) , or secondary or drug - induced parkinson 's disease were excluded .
other exclusion criteria were ipd of less than 1 year duration , lack of response to levodopa , vertical gaze abnormality , early dementia , ataxia and autonomic neuropathy as evident from postural dizziness , erectile impotency and sweating disturbances , clinical depression and severe impairment of daily activities as evaluated from the information battery .
cognitive information battery by das et al . for obtaining demographic and behavioral information relevant to cognitive impairment.kolkata cognitive screening battery ( kcsb ) initially used by ganguly et al . and validated among urban population in bengali and hindi speaking population .
field - testing of kcsb was done to evaluate intra- and inter - rater reliability and the values for different sub - tests ranged from 0.77 to 0.99 . the final battery consisted of 10 sub - tests among which the following 8 sub - tests have been used in this study : verbal fluency tests for categories , naming tests , bengali validated mental status examination , calculation , word list memory task , delayed word list memory task , delayed recognition word task , and visuoconstructional ability .
the subscales of depression and activities of daily life were not used in the present study as the subjects with notable depression and severe impairment of everyday functioning... | background : parkinsonism is known to be associated with clinically significant impairments on an array of cognitive deficits .
the degree of impairment is dependent not only on the course of the disease , but also on other bio - social factors .
the objective of the present study was to examine the cognitive dysfunction in non - demented idiopathic parkinson 's disease ( ipd ) in relation to age , stage of disease , and educational level in a sample in kolkata , india.materials and methods : the sample consisted of 51 ( 42 males , 9 females ) right - handed patients suffering from non - demented ipd , of age between 40 and 82 years .
data were collected during on - phase medication by using the kolkata cognitive screening battery .
data were analyzed using means , standard deviations , and multivariate analyses of variance ( manova).results and conclusion : the patients with ipd were impaired in comparison to the available normative data in almost all aspects of cognitive functioning and higher order mental processes . with increasing age , the patients showed greater impairment in delayed memory and recognition task .
patients of more severe stage showed greater impairment in mmse , delayed recall , and information .
those with lower education had more impaired visuoconstructional ability , information , comprehension , similarities , and arithmetic . |
7,194 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: subsets of 270 participants who visited our hospital for knee pain and met the american college of rheumatology criteria for symptomatic oa of the knee19 ) from october 2005 to september 2013 were evaluated .
we limited the subsets to women for avoiding the confounding variables and bias , because there were only a few male patients ( n = 8) .
all of the patients had a k - l grade 1 in the affected knee and dxa scan was taken of the ipsilateral proximal femur ( femoral neck , trochanter , intertrochanter , total hip - neck , trochanter , and ward 's triangle ) and lumbar spine ( l1 - 4 ) within 6 months of the first visit ( mean interval , 2.7 months ) . to avoid confounding in the statistical analysis , patients with valgus alignment of knees ( 3 valgus about the mechanical axis ) , and other comorbidities ( e.g. , rheumatoid arthritis , septic arthritis ) that could also be the causes of knee pain and change in bone structure were excluded .
subjects who had unsatisfactory medial tibial plateau alignment in the radiographs were also excluded from the final analysis .
weight was measured to the nearest 0.1 kg using a single pair of electronic scales .
height was measured to the nearest 0.1 cm using a stadiometer . from these data ,
body mass index ( bmi ; weight / height , kg / m ) was calculated . mechanical axis in the scanogram ,
jsn in the anteroposterior ( ap ) view and the rosenberg view , and k - l grade were measured to assess the severity of oa .
thus , the relationship between the measured values of bmd and radiographic severity of osteoarthritic changes was analyzed considering the confounding variables .
standing ap films of the knee in full extension were obtained with the horizontal x - ray beam centered at the level of the superior patellae .
views were standardized with the back of the knees in contact with the cassette , the patella centralized over the lower end of the femur , and the beam centered 2.5 cm below the apex of the patella , with a tube - to - film distance of 100 cm .
also ,... | backgroundthe relationship between osteoarthritis ( oa ) and osteoporosis ( op ) is complicated and it may differ according to the site or stage of disease . the purpose of this cross - sectional study is to examine the relationship between the severity of radiological knee oa and the degree of op in the ipsilateral proximal femur as denoted by bone mineral density ( bmd ) in a korean population , especially among women.methods one hundred ninety - five female patients who had knee pain and radiological knee oa were investigated with respect to the relationship of knee oa severity with bmd .
the bmd of the proximal femur and spine was measured by dual energy x - ray absorptiometry , and the severity of knee oa was evaluated based on kellgren - lawrence ( k - l ) radiographic criteria , joint space narrowing ( jsn ) and mechanical axis of knee alignment . partial correlation analysis and ancova adjusted for confounding factors ( age and body mass index )
were performed to assess the relationship.resultsthere was a statistically significant relationship between the bmd of the proximal femur and jsn , and the bmd of the proximal femur was positively associated with increased joint space width .
there was a lack of association between the spine bmd and jsn .
the bmd of the proximal femur was also significantly lower in patients who had a higher k - l grade.conclusionsthe radiographic finding of severe oa in the knee is associated with decreased bmd of the ipsilateral proximal femur including the femoral neck , trochanter , intertrochanter , and region of the entire hip ( neck , trochanter , and ward 's triangle ) . |
7,195 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: with the increasing elderly population , dementia has become one of the most common social
problems1 .
because memory impairment is
the core symptom of dementia , the majority of early interventions aim to slow cognitive
decline . in recent years
however , studies into their use
for dementia patients have found them to have limited effectiveness3 .
recent studies , however , have focused on
non - pharmacological cognitive interventions to alleviate the cognitive deficits related to
dementia4 , 5 .
non - pharmacological cognitive interventions for dementia include re - learning strategies
that promote the management ability to reduce cognitive impairment3 , 6 .
cognitive
interventions differ from pharmacological interventions in that they consider the
interaction between the patients and therapist , as well as the needs of the patient7 .
cognitive interventions have been shown to
temporarily slow the rate of cognitive decline and the loss of functional abilities .
on the
other hand , they can fail because cognitive rehabilitation interventions that are beneficial
for the patients with dementia require significant effort and attention . spaced retrieval training ( srt ) is a good candidate strategy for cognitive intervention in
dementia because it does not require considerable cognitive effort8 .
srt is an expanded interval timer with independent
data - tracking and timing of up to 3 targets4 .
srt recalling targets over increasingly longer periods of time has
been proven to result in improved learning in people with mild to moderate dementia .
this
training regime was developed based on the expanding rehearsal technique which was
originally developed for improving memory in cognitively intact persons9 .
errorless learning ( el ) is a teaching technique that
prevents the making of mistakes while subjects are learning a new skill or acquiring new
information , and it is conducted together with srt or the vanishing cues technique .
srt with
el is a technique for training... | [ purpose ] among the non - pharmacological interventions for dementia , spaced retrieval
training ( srt ) is a good method for rehabilitating cognition .
the purpose of this study
was to examine effects of srt with errorless learning ( el ) in the rehabilitation of
patients with dementia .
[ subjects and methods ] twenty - nine participants with vascular
dementia ( vd ) and alzheimer s disease ( ad ) participated in the present study . the korean
version of the consortium to establish a registry for alzheimer s disease ( cerad - k ) and
modified barthel index ( mbi ) were performed to assess the changes in the
neuropsychological performance and the independent activities of daily living after srt
with el .
all tests were administered both before and after srt with el .
each srt with el
intervention was performed for 30 minutes per day for 5 weeks .
spss for windows version
18.0 was used for statistical analysis .
[ results ] all items of the cerad - k score of the vd
group except for constructional praxis increased significantly after the srt with el
intervention , but no significant differences from the ad group were found .
the korean
version of the geriatric depression scale ( gds - k ) of the vd group increased significantly
after the srt with el intervention .
the mean mbi scores of each group showed no
significant difference after the intervention .
[ conclusion ] srt with el is an effective
intervention for memory training of patients with dementia .
future research using
sufficient sample sizes will be needed to obtain strong evidence for comparing not only
the before and after intervention data but also between the groups . |
7,196 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: globally , colorectal cancer ( crc ) is the fourth most common cancer in men and the third most common cancer in women1 ) .
although most crc occurs sporadically , genetic predisposition related to its pathogenesis has been reported2 ) .
one of the most investigated genotypic subtypes of crc is the aberrancy of the mismatch repair pathway , usually found in combination with microsatellite instability ( msi)3 ) .
lynch syndrome , also called hereditary nonpolypsosis colorectal cancer ( hnpcc ) , is caused by germline mutation of mismatch repair ( mmr ) genes4 ) .
individuals affected by lynch syndrome by heterozygous mutation of mmr usually present crc in the fourth or fifth decade ; however .
k - ras , a critical oncogene and its product playing a key role in the kinase signaling growth pathway , plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of crc6 ) .
the revised bethesda guidelines recommendations were established for a better understanding and identifying individuals with hnpcc ; however , diagnosis of hnpcc at a young age , less than second decades , is difficult as clinician does not suspect it due to its rarity .
we recently cared for a female patient with lynch syndrome , carrying heterozygous mlh1 germline mutation and k - ras missense somatic mutation ; she had crc at a very early age , 13-years old , and congenital heart disease ( transposition of great arteries ) .
a 13-year - old korean female was born without complications . soon after delivery , she was diagnosed with transposition of great arteries and corrective surgery was performed at 3 months of age .
she grew up without any specific health problem until she reached 12 years of age . at 13 years of age
she visited the hospital for weight loss of 10 kg over 2 months and a pale appearance .
she was diagnosed as having helicobacter pylori gastritis by endoscopy and referred to our hospital for further h. pylori eradication and iron supplementation for management of iron deficiency anemia ( hemoglobin , 7.1 g / dl ; serum iron , 13 g / dl ; total... | lynch syndrome is the most common inherited colon cancer syndrome .
patients with lynch syndrome develop a range of cancers including colorectal cancer ( crc ) and carry a mutation on one of the mismatched repair ( mmr ) genes .
although crc usually occurs after the fourth decade in patients with lynch syndrome harboring a heterozygous mmr gene mutation , it can occur in children with lynch syndrome who have a compound heterozygous or homozygous mmr gene mutation .
we report a case of crc in a 13-year - old patient with lynch syndrome and congenital heart disease . this patient had a heterozygous mutation in mlh1 ( an mmr gene ) , but
no compound mmr gene defects , and a k - ras somatic mutation in the cancer cells . |
7,197 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pylephlebitis is defined as septic thrombophlebitis of the portal vein or one of its tributaries , usually secondary to suppuration either in the region drained by the portal venous system or in structures contiguous to the portal vein ( e.g. , the common bile duct ) .
pylephlebitis , that previously well - characterized complication of appendicitis , is rare now , owing to core expeditious surgical management of intra - abdominal infections and the advent of antibiotic therapy . despite this rarity ,
mortality remains high and the number of case reports dealing with this entity seems to have increased over the past 15 years .
the current widespread use of abdominal ultrasonography and ct may , in part , explain the recent increase in reported cases .
the 37-year - old man had a 5-days duration of fever , chills , small amount of watery diarrhea and yellowish skin discoloration .
his past medical and surgical history was unremarkable , but he recalled an episode of diffuse abdominal pain , nausea and vomiting more than 3 weeks earlier .
bowel sounds were slightly increased and minimal right upper and lower quadrant tenderness was presented .
peripheral white blood cell count was 11,300/mm ( segment neutrophil : 66% , metamyelocyte : 20% ) .
iu / l , gamma - gpt 68 iu / l , alkaline phosphatase 152 iu / l , total - bilirubin 16.79 mg / dl , direct bilirubin 14.30 mg / dl , protein 5.54 g / dl and albumin 2.81 g / dl .
abdominal ultrasonography revealed a thrombus in the upper smv , lower extrahepatic portal vein and dilated smv .
doppler studies showed antegrade flow in the portal vein and space - occupying lesions in the liver .
a contrast - enhanced ct scan confirmed the portal vein thrombosis and also demonstrated superior mesenteric vein thrombosis(fig .
dirty fat sign , with streaky infiltration and enlarged lymph nodes , were noted in the right lower abdomen , adjacent to the cecum .
an inflammatory condition around the cecum , such as chronic perforated appendicitis , was highly suggested(fig .
a small... | pylephlebitis usually occurs secondary to infection in the region drained by the portal venous system .
a most common antesecent focus of infection is diverticulitis and the most common blood isolate is e. coli ( 54% ) , followed by proteus mirabilis ( 23% ) .
overall mortality is 32% and most of the patients who had died had severe sepsis prior to the initiation of antibiotic therapy .
we describe a case of pylephlebitis which had appendicitis and consequent septic thrombosis of the portal vein and its branches , with dissemination of infection to the liver . the patient had recovered due to timely antibiotic treatment alone and resulted in complete resolution .
early diagnosis and treatment are basic to a favorable clinical course . |
7,198 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the united states and the second most commonly diagnosed malignancy worldwide .
although many prostate cancer patients have localized disease at the time of diagnosis , some present with evidence of metastasis . in the latter cases , androgen deprivation therapy ( adt )
although this therapy is very effective initially , the disease eventually progresses in all patients and becomes resistant to treatment , which is also known as castration - resistant prostate cancer ( crpc ) .
3-hydroxy-3-methyl - glutaryl - coa reductase inhibitors , commonly known as statins , are highly effective in lowering cholesterol levels and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease .
however , statins can also modify the cholesterol levels needed for signal transduction and have shown an effect on prostate cancer cells .
statins are thought to modulate androgen receptor expression and activity , which may reduce the proliferation of prostate cancer cells and induce apoptosis .
statins may also reduce the levels of prostate - specific antigen ( psa ) released by prostate cancer cells .
a number of epidemiological studies have shown a relationship between statin use and lower cancer risk and mortality , including in prostate cancer . in many studies
, statin use has shown an antitumor effect in prostate cancer , decreasing the risk of recurrence and prostate cancer mortality . in patients who have undergone radical
in addition , statins are associated with reduced mortality rates in prostate cancer patients who have been treated with radiation therapy .
the aim of our current study was to determine whether statins have an effect on prostate cancer patients who can not be treated with standard definitive therapies owing to the extent of disease .
we investigated whether statin use delays the development of crpc in metastatic prostate cancer patients who had been treated with adt .
this study was performed with the approval and oversight of the institutional review board... | purposeto determine whether statin use delays the development of castration - resistant prostate cancer ( crpc ) in patients with metastatic prostate cancer treated with androgen deprivation therapy ( adt).materials and methodsa total of 171 patients with metastatic prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis who were treated with adt between january 1997 and december 2013 were retrospectively analyzed .
the patients were classified into two groups : the nonstatin use group ( a group ) and the statin use group ( b group ) .
multivariate analysis was performed on statin use and other factors considered likely to have an effect on the time to progression to crpc.resultsthe mean patient age was 67.19.1 years , and the mean follow - up period was 52 months .
the mean initial prostate - specific antigen ( psa ) level was 537 ng / ml . of the 171 patients , 125 ( 73% ) were in group a and 46 ( 27% ) were in group b. the time to progression to crpc was 22.7 months in group a and 30.5 months in group b , and this difference was significant ( p=0.032 ) .
blood cholesterol and initial psa levels did not differ significantly according to the time to progression to crpc ( p=0.288 , p=0.198 ) .
multivariate analysis using the cox regression method showed that not having diabetes ( p=0.037 ) and using a statin ( p=0.045 ) significantly increased the odds ratio of a longer progression to crpc.conclusionsstatin use in metastatic prostate cancer patients appears to delay the progression to crpc .
large - scale , long - term follow - up studies are needed to validate this finding . |
7,199 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: sarcoidosis is an idiopathic multisystem granulomatous disease that commonly involves the lungs , eyes , lymph nodes and skin .
the disease usually begins at around 40 years of age and nearly two - thirds of the cases are females .
sarcoidosis confined to skin is quite uncommon as reported in literature , contrary to the latest scenario .
because lesions assume a vast array of morphologies , cutaneous sarcoidosis is known as one of the great imitators in dermatology .
we report three cases of cutaneous sarcoidosis without systemic involvement with varied presentation with regard to age and morphologies .
a 28-year - old female presented with a complaint of itchy skin lesions over the face and extremities . initially , the lesions started on the elbow and leg , which was diagnosed as lichen planus and treated with topical steroid .
cutaneous examination revealed multiple , discrete , erythematous papules [ figure 1 ] along with flat - topped , violaceous papules and plaques , morphologically classical of lichen planus [ figure 2 ] lesions over the face , forearm , abdomen and leg .
case 1 erythematous papules of sarcoidosis over face case 1 violaceous lichenoid papules of sarcoidosis over elbow skin biopsy from the face and elbow lesion revealed classical noncaseating epithelioid cell granulomas of sarcoidal type involving the entire dermis [ figure 3 ] .
serum calcium , liver function tests ( lft ) , renal function tests ( rft ) , ultrasonogram ( usg ) abdomen and chest x - ray were normal case 1 h and e low power showing noncaseating granuloma extending till basal cell layer ; ( inset ) high power showing epithelioid granuloma consisting of langhan 's giant cell case 1 reticulum stain showing intact black reticulin fibers the patient was treated with hydroxy - chloroquine 200 mg bid for 3 months .
the erythematous lesions started resolving but there was an increase in the number and size of the flat - topped , violaceous colored skin lesions .
the repeat skin biopsy of these lesions revealed the classical... | it is a known fact that cutaneous sarcoidosis is a great imitator in dermatology .
we report three cases of cutaneous sarcoidosis without systemic involvement and with varied dermatologic presentation with regard to age and morphology .
lesions mimicked various common dermatologic conditions , causing great confusion for the diagnosis and posing problems for management .
awareness of these varied morphologic presentations is essential for the early diagnosis and management of the master mimicker - cutaneous sarcoidosis . |
7,200 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a review of the literature , including two dermatology studies , indicates that patients prefer their physicians to wear white coats , not only for identification purposes but to build trust and confidence .
this preference holds stable whether studies have addressed general practitioners , specialists , or dermatologists specifically . a study in
which subjects were shown digital photographs of doctors with or without white coats found that subjects perceived the doctors wearing white coats to have greater authority , to be more friendly and to be more attractive .
no study has assessed the prevalence of dermatologists wearing white coats on their websites . given that patient preferences are well known and that websites are a major marketing and communication tool
, we conducted an observational study to evaluate the prevalence of dermatologists in white coats on websites .
to estimate national trends , we evaluated six states from varying regions : northwest ( oregon ) , southwest ( arizona ) , west ( colorado ) , midwest ( indiana ) , northeast ( massachusetts ) , and southeast ( south carolina ) .
one author ( ah ) used google to search the terms arizona dermatology , colorado dermatology , indiana dermatology , massachusetts dermatology , oregon dermatology , and south carolina dermatology . during october 1824 , 2010
she evaluated the first 100 websites for each search term , assessing for relevancy , redundancy , and english language use .
if multiple photos or videos of a dermatologist existed on the site , she only recorded one image per dermatologist with the profile image taking priority .
she recorded the total number of dermatologists , their gender , and whether they were photographed with or without white coats .
massachusetts and south carolina had the highest white coat prevalence rate at 29% and 39% , respectively .
colorado had the lowest rate at 13% , one third of south carolina s rate .
there was moderate variation by gender between various states : arizona and colorado had a higher... | physicians wearing white coats are perceived as having more authority , being more friendly and being more attractive than those not wearing white coats , and patients report that they prefer their dermatologist to wear a white coat .
the aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of dermatologists wearing white coats on practice websites .
we searched google for dermatology practice websites in six states representing distinct geographic regions in the united states .
the first one hundred search results were evaluated , and photographs of dermatologists on these websites were examined for the presence or absence of white coats .
most ( 77% ) of dermatologists did not wear white coats .
the highest prevalence was in the eastern states of massachusetts and south carolina , with 29% and 39% , respectively .
colorado had the lowest rate at 13% .
rates were essentially equal when segmented by gender .
although patients report that they prefer their dermatologist to wear a white coat , dermatologists often do not wear a white coat on their practice websites . |
7,201 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: rheumatoid arthritis ( ra ) is characterised by a progressive , erosive polyarthritis , resulting in immune - mediated joint destruction and eventual disability.components of the immunoinflammatory response include acute phase proteins , auto - reactive t cells , b cells , and their respective inflammatory mediators .
the consequence is a self - perpetuating chronic inflammatory response involving a complex interplay between infiltrating inflammatory cells and the structural cells of the synovial joint [ 1 , 2 ] .
matrix metalloproteinase-3 ( mmp-3 ) is produced predominantly by chondrocytes and synovial fibroblasts and is found in high concentrations in the synovial fluid , with elevated levels also found in the serum of ra patients .
mmp-3 production is upregulated by the proinflammatory cytokines il-1 , tnf , ifn , and il-17a , as well as by serum amyloid a ( saa ) , an acute phase reactant , with counter - regulatory inhibition from il-4 and il-13 [ 410 ] . cytokine / saa - driven production of mmp-3 in the rheumatoid joint appears to be a key mediator of cartilage destruction , while bone resorption is facilitated by mmp-3-mediated removal of the outer osteoid layer , enabling attachment of osteoclasts to the underlying bone .
moreover , mmp-3 mediates the proteolytic activation of pro - mmp-9 released from both inflammatory and structural cells . aside from its role in promoting the recruitment of neutrophils , monocytes , t cells , and osteoclasts
, mmp-9 promotes the release of membrane - bound vascular endothelial growth factor ( vegf ) , thereby contributing to angiogenesis and disease progression . with respect to its diagnostic and prognostic potential , elevated serum concentrations of mmp-3 , while having no specificity for ra , have been found in many [ 1321 ] , but not all [ 2225 ] , studies to correlate with disease severity and response to chemotherapy .
however , the global interrelationships of mmp-3 with proven genetic markers of disease susceptibility , such as the shared epitope (... | matrix metalloproteinase-3 ( mmp-3 ) is involved in the immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis ( ra ) , but little is known about its relationship to genetic susceptibility and biomarkers of disease activity , especially acute phase reactants in early ra .
mmp-3 was measured by elisa in serum samples of 128 disease - modifying , drug - nave patients and analysed in relation to shared epitope genotype , a range of circulating chemokines / cytokines , acute phase reactants , autoantibodies , cartilage oligomeric protein ( comp ) , and the simplified disease activity index ( sdai ) .
mmp-3 was elevated > 1.86 ng / ml in 56.25% of patients ( p < 0.0001 ) , correlated with several biomarkers , notably il-8 , il-6 , ifn , vegf and comp ( r values = 0.220.33 , p < 0.0140.0001 ) and with crp and saa levels ( r = 0.40 and 0.41 , resp . , p < 0.0000 ) and sdai ( r = 0.29 , p < 0.0001 ) , but not with erosions or nodulosis .
however , the correlations of crp and saa with sdai were stronger ( respective values of 0.63 and 0.54 , p < 0.001 for both ) .
comp correlated with smoking , rf , and mmp-3 .
mmp-3 is significantly associated with disease activity , inflammatory mediators and cartilage breakdown , making it a potential biomarker of disease severity , but seemingly less useful than crp and saa as a biomarker of disease activity in early ra . |
7,202 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the goal of endodontic treatment is to eliminate diseased pulpal tissue and to create an
environment that allows periapical tissues to heal and to prevent the development of
apical periodontitis .
affected teeth are retained by removing diseased tissue , sealing
the canal system , and subsequently restoring the coronal tooth structure .
although many factors of technical order
are involved in the failure of endodontic treatment , the emergence of bacteria that
resist therapy and proliferate in the root canal , or that contaminate the canal after
endodontic treatment through coronal microleakage , is primarily responsible for
unsuccessful treatment .
frequently , the success of endodontic treatment is associated with an appropriate apical
sealing .
however , the coronal seal reached using restorations
has been considered important . in certain situations
, the filling can be exposed to the
oral environment , as in the case of failures or losses of restorations , fractures of the
dental structure or the restorative material , or during the intraradicular preparation
for post placement .
furthermore , the prosthetic crown may come off ,
exposing the intracanal post to the buccal environment .
theoretically , any bacteria present in the oral cavity can invade the root canal and
participate in the installation of an infectious process .
enterococcus faecalis , bacterium species frequently isolated in root
canals with endodontic failure , represent a small
portion of the initial microbiota of teeth with pulp necrosis and periradicular
lesions .
this bacterium demonstrates resistance to endodontic
disinfection procedures during chemical - mechanic preparation and the
capacity to survive in root canals as a single species without the need for a
cooperative relationship with other bacteria . despite not simulating some conditions of the oral cavity , as the temperature changes ,
the influence of the diet and saliva flow and the use of human saliva remain the most
... | objectivethe aim of this study was to investigate the coronal microleakage of
endodontically treated teeth prepared to receive an intracanal post and teeth with
an intracanal post but without a prosthetic crown and exposed to contamination by
fresh human saliva.material and methodsa mechanical - chemical preparation following the step - back technique was carried
out in 35 extracted single - rooted human teeth .
the teeth were randomly divided
into five groups : g1=root canals instrumented , obturated , and prepared to receive
an intracanal post ( n=10 ) ; g2=root canals with cemented posts but without coronal
sealing ( n=10 ) ; pc1=positive control root canals instrumented and open ( n=5 ) ;
pc2=positive control 2 root canals without instrumentation and open ( n=5 ) ; and
nc = negative control healthy teeth ( n=5 ) .
the crowns were removed except for the
control group of intact teeth .
the root canals were obturated and sterilized with
cobalt 60 gamma irradiation and were then adapted in an apparatus using a brain
heart infusion ( bhi ) medium and fresh human saliva for contamination .
microbial
growth was indicated by the presence of turbidity in the bhi liquid medium.resultsdata were submitted to the kaplan - meier survival analysis and the holm - sidak
statistic method , which observed an index of 90% of microleakage in root canals
after 24 hours for g1 and 70% of microleakage in samples at the end of 40 days for
g2.conclusionthe results show that root canals with an intracanal post but without a prosthetic
crown can be recontaminated when exposed to fresh human saliva in a short
period . |
7,203 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: interleukin-6 ( il-6 ) , initially designated as a b cell differentiation factor 1 , is a representative cytokine featuring redundancy and pleiotropic activity 2 - 4 . in the early phase of infectious inflammation
, il-6 is produced by monocytes and macrophages immediately after the stimulation of toll - like receptors ( tlrs ) with distinct pathogen - associated molecular patterns ( pamps ) 5 . in noninfectious inflammations , such as burn or traumatic injury , damage - associated molecular patterns ( damps ) from damaged or dying cells stimulate tlrs to produce il-6 6 .
this acute il-6 expression plays a central role in host defense by stimulating various cell populations .
when acting on hapatocytes , il-6 strongly induces a broad spectrum of acute - phase proteins such as c - reactive protein ( crp ) , serum amyloid a ( saa ) , fibrinogen , hepcidin , haptoglobin , and antichymotrypsin , whereas it reduces albumin , cytochrome p 450 , fibronectin , and transferrin 7 , 8
( figure 1 ) .
crp is a good biomarker of inflammation and is used as such in clinical laboratory tests .
if the free concentration of the anti - interleukin 6 receptor antibody , tocilizumab is maintained in serum at more than 1 g / ml , crp remains negative 10 , so that the serum crp level is a hallmark for checking whether il-6 activity is completely blocked in vivo .
continuously high levels of hepcidin induced by il-6 block iron transporter ferroportin 1 in macrophages , hepatocytes , and gut epithelial cells and lead to hypoferremia and anemia of chronic inflammation 11 , whereas long - term high levels of saa result in amyloid a amyloidosis 12 . in lymphocytes
when cd4-positive nave t cells are primed , a specific cytokine prompts their differentiation into an effector t cell subset . il-6 together with tgf- preferentially promotes differentiation of il-17-producing t helper cells ( th17 ) that play a crucial role in the induction of autoimmune tissue injury , whereas il-6 inhibits tgf--induced regulatory t cell ( treg )... | interleukin ( il)-6 , a cytokine featuring redundancy and pleiotropic activity , contributes to host defense against acute environmental stress , while dysregulated persistent il-6 production has been demonstrated to play a pathological role in various autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases .
targeting il-6 is thus a rational approach to the treatment of these diseases . indeed , clinical trials of tocilizumab
, a humanized anti - il-6 receptor antibody have verified its efficacy and tolerable safety for patients with rheumatoid arthritis , castleman 's disease and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis , resulting in approval of this innovative biologic for treatment of these diseases . moreover , a considerable number of case reports and pilot studies of off - label use of tocilizumab point to the beneficial effects of tocilizumab for a variety of other phenotypically different autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases .
elucidation of the source of il-6 and of mechanisms through which il-6 production is dysregulated can thus be expected to lead to clarification of the pathogenesis of various diseases . |
7,204 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: while there have been many clinical limitations to the placement of implants cited in literature one of the strongest arguments against the willingness of patients towards the placement of dental implants has been the prohibitive cost of these implants . in the past few years
however there have been many reports in literature that as the cost of dental implants decrease and their rates of success improve , patients reluctance towards the placement of implants may slowly be changing.[68 ] assessing a patient 's willingness to pay ( wtp ) is one of the most accepted methods to evaluate the acceptability of new treatment modality for the clinician .
it has been used to successfully measure patient 's perception in not only in dentistry,[911 ] but in fields such as orthopedics , cardiology and health care service preferences .
bidding is the oldest and most accepted tool to assess wtp of a patient and provides both clinicians and third party payment providers with a realistic estimate of how much a patient can spend on a new treatment modality . despite this
, it has been stated that data on how much a patient is willing to pay for implant care and how this may influence clinical decision making is scant .
although , there is some data on the factors that affect clinicians recommendation of dental implants in the middle east , the concept of wtp for implant treatment and how it influences clinical decisions remain a largely unexplored area . given this background
it was decided to evaluate saudi patients wtp for implant treatment and attempt to define the clinical and socio - demographic factors influencing that decision .
ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the research center of the riyadh colleges of dentistry and pharmacy ( ugsrp/2011/021).the study was conducted between september 2011 and january 2012 .
the power of sample was calculated based on the minimum sample required for a regression analysis with a single dependent variable , with true r value of 0.1 , with alpha set at 0.05 ; which was... | background : one of the factors that dissuade patients needing tooth replacement from choosing dental implants is the prohibitive cost . willingness to pay ( wtp ) is a useful tool to determine the ideal cost of an expensive procedure.aim:the aim of this study was to study the factors that influence the willingness to pay ( wtp ) among patients attending a private clinic and compare them to those attending a government setup.materials and methods : a total of 100 patients ( 38 male , 62 female ) who had one or more missing teeth were presented with different cost - benefit scenarios and then asked if they were willing to pay the median cost of a single implant in riyadh city .
the mean wtp price was compared using the one way - anova , factors which could possibly influence patients wtp were grouped together in a binomial logistic regression model.results:of the 100 individuals surveyed 67% said they would be willing to pay the median price for the placement of an implant .
a comparison of socio - demographic factors showed that significant differences were found between gender , income groups and setting of the clinic in the mean wtp price of the patients ( p < 0.05 ) .
we also found that there was a significant difference in the mean wtp price between groups with regard to the area of the missing tooth , the patients perception of their oral health and the their desire to want an implant ( p < 0.05).conclusion : the majority of the patients surveyed were willing to pay the median price for an implant . willingness to pay ( wtp ) is a multifactorial variable which is significantly influenced by the income of the patient , the setting of the clinic and the gender ; the most significant factor being the acceptability of the implant to the patient . |
7,205 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( copd ) is now the third leading cause of death in the united states.1 in 2007 , the economic burden of copd in the us was $ 42.6 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.2 although different pharmacological treatments have shown improvement in lung functions in general copd patients , the predominantly emphysema phenotypes with poor lung functions are often considered for additional surgical procedures .
these include the bullectomy,3 single and double lung transplantation,4 and , more recently , lung volume reduction ( lvr ) surgery ( lvrs).5 the latter is based on the concept that targeted resection of the damaged tissue that causes hyperinflation allows more space for the residual lung , which results in improvement of chest wall mechanics and transpulmonary recoil pressures .
this and other factors appear to contribute to the physiological and symptomatic improvements that follow lvrs . the national emphysema treatment trial ( nett ) showed that the patients who benefited the most from lvrs in terms of survival and functional improvement were those who had predominantly upper lobe emphysema and poor exercise capacity.5,6 however , significant short - term morbidity and mortality have been associated with lvrs.7 furthermore , the associated costs of lvrs are almost prohibitive and make this a less attractive option for lvr.8 different methods of bronchoscopic lvr ( blvr ) have been studied , and more alternatives to lvrs are being studied in clinical trials .
most of the evidence in literature exists for one - way valves , sealants / hydrogels ( from here on , collectively referred to as biolvr ) , coil implants ( lvr coils [ lvrcs ] ) , airway bypass stents , and bronchial thermal vapor ablation ( btva ) therapy .
the valves work by preventing inspired air from entering target airways and allow exit of trapped air from distal airways .
biolvr therapy involves administration of a fibrinogen suspension and thrombin solution into the airways separately . once... | backgroundover the last several years , the morbidity , mortality , and high costs associated with lung volume reduction ( lvr ) surgery has fuelled the development of different methods for bronchoscopic lvr ( blvr ) in patients with emphysema . in this meta - analysis , we sought to study and compare the efficacy of most of these methods.methodseligible studies were retrieved from pubmed and embase for the following blvr methods : one - way valves , sealants ( biolvr ) , lvr coils , airway bypass stents , and bronchial thermal vapor ablation .
primary study outcomes included the mean change post - intervention in the lung function tests , the 6-minute walk distance , and the st george s respiratory questionnaire .
secondary outcomes included treatment - related complications.resultsexcept for the airway bypass stents , all other methods of blvr showed efficacy in primary outcomes .
however , in comparison , the biolvr method showed the most significant findings and was the least associated with major treatment - related complications .
for the biolvr method , the mean change in forced expiratory volume ( in first second ) was 0.18 l ( 95% confidence interval [ ci ] : 0.09 to 0.26 ; p<0.001 ) ; in 6-minute walk distance was 23.98 m ( 95% ci : 12.08 to 35.88 ; p<0.01 ) ; and in st george s respiratory questionnaire was -8.88 points ( 95% ci : 12.12 to 5.64 ; p<0.001).conclusionthe preliminary findings of our meta - analysis signify the importance of most methods of blvr .
the magnitude of the effect on selected primary outcomes shows noninfe - riority , if not equivalence , when compared to what is known for surgical lvr . |
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