Abstract Objective: To assess long-term effects of nasal correction in infancy on nasal form and growth in patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). Design: Retrospective longitudinal study. Patients: Seventeen patients with complete UCLP treated in Program SEHATI in Harapan Kita Children and Maternity Hospital, Indonesia and followed for ...

Identification of the effects of historical processes on spatial genetic variation is of major importance in landscape genetics, especially in recent systems where the signal of recent isolation is often hardly perceptible. The goal of this study was to assess how differences in colonization patterns could influence spatial genetic variation ...

CONTEXT: Translational phases of study are important in evaluating whether a prognostic biomarker is likely to have impact on clinical practice but systematic evaluations of such evidence are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the clinical usefulness of the published literature on the association of natriuretic peptides (NP) and prognosis in ...

Although intra-operative and immediate postoperative complications of robotic surgery are relatively low, little is known about long-term morbidity. We set out to assess both short- and long-term morbidities after robotic surgery for endometrial cancer staging. All patients who underwent robotic staging for EMCA between 2006 and 2009 from two institutions ...

(68)Ga has attracted tremendous interest as a radionuclide for PET based on its suitable half-life of 68 min, high positron emission yield and ready availability from (68)Ge/(68)Ga generators, making it independent of cyclotron production. (68)Ga-labelled DOTA-conjugated somatostatin analogues, including DOTA-TOC, DOTA-TATE and DOTA-NOC, have driven the development of technologies to provide ...

The increasing burden of harm resulting from the use of multiple drugs in older patient populations represents a major health problem in developed countries. Approximately 1 in 4 older patients admitted to hospitals are prescribed at least 1 inappropriate medication, and up to 20% of all inpatient deaths are attributable ...

Kocuria varians alpha-amylase contains tandem starch-binding domains SBD1-SBD2 (SBD12) that possess typical halophilic characteristics. Recombinant tandem domains SBD12 and single domain SBD1, both with amino-terminal hexa-His tag, were expressed in and purified to homogeneity from Escherichia coli. The circular dichroism (CD) spectrum of His-SBD12 was characterized by a positive peak ...

The inner membrane complex is a unifying morphological feature of all alveolate organisms. It consists of flattened vesicles underlying the plasma membrane and is interconnected with the cytoskeleton. Depending on the ecological niche of the organisms, the function of the IMC varies from a fundamental role in reinforcement to more ...

Chimpanzee and hunter-gatherer intergroup aggression differ in important ways, including humans having the ability to form peaceful relationships and alliances among groups. This paper nevertheless evaluates the hypothesis that intergroup aggression evolved according to the same functional principles in the two species-selection favoring a tendency to kill members of neighboring ...

BACKGROUND: Sapropterin dihydrochloride, an EMEA-approved synthetic formulation of BH4, has been available in Europe since 2009 for PKU patients older than 4 years, but its use with younger children is allowed in France based on an expert recommendation. We report the cases of 15 patients treated under the age of ...

Aim:  This study reviewed the demographic, epidemiological and clinical factors of boys seen at a single center who underwent surgical explored for testicular torsion. Methods:  Retrospective single center review of boys with testicular torsion between 1996-2011 was performed. Results:  Testicular torsion (right n=43, left n=60, bilateral n=1) was identified in ...

The purpose of this study was to assess the results of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (Allo-SCT) after reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) from matched related donors (MRD) and unrelated donor (URD) in 40 patients with high-risk multiple myeloma (MM) in a single centre. Seventeen (43%) (Group 1) and 23 patients (57%) (Group ...

ObjectiveWall thickness is a poorly documented characteristic of cerebral aneurysms which may provide insight into adaptive aneurysmal growth, aneurysm rupture risk and response to endovascular treatment. The distribution of aneurysm wall thickness, as observed by intraoperative video microscopy, is described.Methods54 unruptured saccular cerebral aneurysms were selected based on the availability ...

The pyrazosulfuron-ethyl-degrading bacterium, designated as CW17, was isolated from contaminated soil near the warehouse of the factory producing pyrazosulfuron-ethyl in Changsha city, China. The strain CW17 was identified as Acinetobacter sp. based on analyses of 94 carbon source utilization or chemical sensitivity in Biolog microplates, conventional phenotypic characteristics, and 16S ...

Chromogranin A (CgA) is a member of the granins, a family of acidic proteins found in abundance in (neuro)endocrine cells (e.g., in chromaffin cells) and in some tumors. Like other granins, CgA has a granulogenic role in secretory granule biogenesis and is stored in these organelles. CgA is partially processed ...

Aims and objectives.  This study explored decision-making experiences of patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease when opting for conservative management of their renal failure. Background.  Dialysis is an invasive treatment, and for some older patients, there is an associated treatment burden of dialysis-related symptoms. An alternative choice is conservative ...

BaP1 is a snake venom metalloproteinase from the venom of Bothrops asper, showing high structural homology with the catalytic domain of human adamalysins and matrix metalloproteinases. It induces the release of cytokines, like interleukin-1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha. Recently the high resolution crystal structure of BaP1 with a bound ...

AIMS: To determine the effect of intracamerally injected voriconazole on corneal endothelial cells in rabbit eyes. METHODS: Various concentrations of voriconazole (0%, 0.03%, 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1%) were injected intracamerally in 36 eyes of 18 rabbits (six eyes for each concentration). Measurements of endothelial cell counts and central corneal ...

This paper presents a model independent feature selection approach to identify a small subset of marker genes. An evaluation measure, minimum expected cost of misclassification (MEMC), is used to estimate the discriminative power of a feature subset without building a model. The MECM measure is combined with sequential forward search ...

RATIONALE: Nitric oxide (NO) is an important messenger mediating erection in the central nervous system (CNS). Paraventricular nucleus (PVN) neurons can be activated by NO and project the signals to the sacral spinal cord, which is involved in regulation of erection. Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb 761) facilitates noncontact erection (NCE) ...

ObjectivesTo investigate the mechanisms through which marital status exerts long-term effects on depressive symptoms among women and to evaluate the relative importance of psychological, social and financial resources in mediating this relationship.MethodsData came from 6107 female respondents to a nationally representative longitudinal data set from the USA (National Survey of ...

Brown rice fermented with Aspergillus oryzae, designated as FBRA, is a dietary fiber-rich food, and fully appreciated as one of the prebiotics, which are generally considered to be beneficial to the health of the body, because of stimulating the growth and/or the activity of bacteria in the digestive system. To ...

In this study, we investigated whether apigenin and wogonin affect MUC5AC mucin production and gene expression induced by phorbol ester (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, PMA) or epidermal growth factor (EGF) from human airway epithelial cells. Confluent NCI-H292 cells were pretreated with each agent for 30 min and then stimulated with PMA or ...

We provide a copula identifiability condition for dependent truncated data model. The identifiability is characterized by the strong lower-left tail identifiability of the copula family. We show that the commonly used Archimedean copula families with analytic generator functions satisfy this condition.

To evaluate the digital program, Mealtime is Family Time, as a means of educating caregivers of preschoolers on the importance of family meals within the division of feeding responsibility framework. Descriptive design using 2 approaches: focus group program review and discussion or self-report survey after independent program review in low-income ...

Syndecan-1 (CD138), a heparan sulfate proteoglycan, is constantly expressed on tumor cells in multiple myeloma (MM). This surface antigen is an attractive candidate for targeted therapy, especially radioimmunotherapy (RAIT). We report preliminary biodistribution and dosimetry results obtained in refractory MM patients in a phase I/II RAIT study using iodine-131-labeled anti-CD138 ...

We conducted a pilot study of reproducibility and associations of microbial diversity and composition in faecal microbial DNA. Participants (25 men and 26 women, aged 17-65 years) provided questionnaire data and multiple samples of one stool collected with two Polymedco and two Sarstedt devices preloaded with RNAlater. 16S rRNA genes ...

A common obstacle to NMR studies of proteins is sample preparation. In many cases, proteins targeted for NMR studies are poorly expressed and/or expressed in insoluble forms. Here, we describe a novel approach to overcome these problems. In the protein S tag-intein (PSTI) technology, two tandem 92-residue N-terminal domains of ...

Most of the reports on synthetic biology include not only familiar topics like biosafety and biosecurity but also a chapter on 'ethical concerns'; a variety of diffuse topics that are interrelated in some way or another. This article deals with these 'ethical concerns'. In particular it addresses issues such as ...

BACKGROUND: Arachnoid cysts are congenital fluid-filled compartments within the cerebrospinal fluid cisterns and cerebral fissures. They most commonly occur sporadically, and familial occurrence has rarely been reported. In this study, we showed the first genetic linkage in the literature in a pure intracranial arachnoid cyst family with autosomal recessive trait. ...

BACKGROUND: Corticosteroids and pentoxifylline reduce short-term mortality in severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH), but not to the extent desired. Combining both drugs may lead to better survival, but has not yet been studied. AIM: To compare the efficacy of corticosteroids plus pentoxifylline with that of corticosteroids alone in improving survival of ...

The functional link between glycolipid glycosyltransferases (GT) relies on the ability of these proteins to form organized molecular complexes. The organization, stoichiometry and composition of these complexes may impact their sorting properties, sub-Golgi localization, and may determine relative efficiency of GT in different glycolipid biosynthetic pathways. In this work, by ...

The link between depression, obesity, and fertility status is poorly understood among Latina women. The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) is routinely administered in the Diabetes and Obesity in Reproductive Age women Clinic. We describe median PHQ-9 score and PHQ-9 score ≥10 [indicative of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)] by fertility ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this work is to investigate the facial distortion (dysmorphopsia) experienced by patients with homonymous paracentral scotomas and to analyze the interrelationship with the previously described "thin man" phenomenon. METHODS: Routine neuro-ophthalmological examination and brain MRI in three patients who suffered from small homonymous paracentral scotomas due ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Azathioprine and mercaptopurine remain first line immunomodulatory treatments for inflammatory bowel disease. Toxicity and non-response are significant issues. Co-prescription of allopurinol with reduced-dose (25-33%) azathioprine or mercaptopurine may overcome these problems. We present the outcome of co-prescription in a large single-centre cohort. METHOD: Patients on thiopurine/allopurinol co-prescription ...

Tuberculosis (TB) is still one of the most common causes of death in the world. The emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) strains has increased the importance of searching for alternative targets to develop new antimycobacterial drugs. Linezolid, the first of oxazolidinones, is active in ...

Most studies examining the association between body mass index (BMI) and mortality neglected changes in weight over time, which may have led to underestimation of the true association. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between BMI and health related outcomes while accounting for variations of BMI ...

Characterization of normal changes in the serum proteome during pregnancy may enhance understanding of maternal physiology and lead to the development of new gestational biomarkers. In 23 Nepalese pregnant women who delivered at term, two-dimensional difference in-gel electrophoresis (DIGE) was used to assess changes in relative protein abundance between paired ...

Adipose tissue macrophages are important mediators of inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity. IFN-γ is a central regulator of macrophage function. The role of IFN-γ in regulating systemic inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity is unknown. We studied obese IFN-γ knockout mice to identify the role of IFN-γ in regulating ...

Predictions of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are commonly performed for single inhibitors, but interactions involving multiple inhibitors also frequently occur. Predictions of such interactions involving stereoisomer pairs, parent/metabolite combinations and simultaneously administered multiple inhibitors are increasing in importance. This review provides the framework for predicting inhibitory DDIs of multiple inhibitors with ...

Coat proteins of tailed, dsDNA phages and in herpesviruses include a conserved core similar to the bacteriophage HK97 subunit. This core is often embellished with other domains such as the telokin Ig-like domain of phage P22. Eighty-six P22-like phages and prophages with sequenced genomes share a similar set of virion ...

In this review, published peer-reviewed preclinical studies using prime-boost tuberculosis (TB) vaccine regimens in animal challenge models for tuberculosis have been evaluated. These studies have been divided into groups that describe prime-boost vaccine combinations that performed better than, equivalent to, or worse than the currently used BCG vaccine. Review of ...

Although amiodarone is the most commonly prescribed anti-arrhythmic drug, its use is limited by serious toxicities, including optic neuropathy. Current reports of amiodarone-associated optic neuropathy identified from the Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System and published case reports were reviewed. A total of 296 reports were identified: 214 ...

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an immunoregulatory enzyme that is implicated in suppressing T-cell immunity in many settings including cancer. In recent years, we have described spontaneous CD8(+) as well as CD4(+) T-cell reactivity against IDO in the tumor microenvironment of different cancer patients as well as in the peripheral blood ...

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the number of patients with the disease is likely to grow with the continual decline in health for most of the developed world. Heart transplantation is one of the only treatment options for heart failure due to an ...

Endocytosis, the internalization and transport of extracellular cargo, is an essential cellular process. The ultimate step in endocytosis is the intracellular degradation of extracellular cargo for use by the cell. While live cell imaging and single particle tracking have been well-utilized to study the internalization and transport of cargo, the ...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an important imaging modality to understand the neurodegenerative course of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer's disease (AD), because the memory dysfunction may occur before structural degeneration is obvious. In this research, we investigated the functional abnormalities of subjects with amnestic MCI (aMCI) ...

The objective of this study was to determine whether metabolic parameters derived from ex vivo analysis of tissue samples are predictive of biologic characteristics of recurrent low grade gliomas (LGGs). This was achieved by exploring the use of multivariate pattern recognition methods to generate statistical models of the metabolic characteristics ...

The apical sodium dependent bile acid transporter (ASBT) and sodium-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) are potential prodrug targets, but the structural requirements for these transporters are incompletely defined. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of C-3 and C-7 substitution on bile acid interaction with these bile acid ...

The pathology of pediatric severe therapy-resistant asthma (STRA) is little understood. We hypothesized that STRA in children is characterized by airway eosinophilia and mast cell inflammation and is driven by the T(H)2 cytokines IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13. Sixty-nine children (mean age, 11.8 years; interquartile range, 5.6-17.3 years; patients with STRA, ...