Meta-analyses pooling continuous outcomes can use mean differences (MD), standardized MD (MD in pooled standard deviation units, SMD), or ratio of arithmetic means (RoM). Recently, ratio of geometric means using ad hoc (RoGM (ad hoc) ) or Taylor series (RoGM (Taylor) ) methods for estimating variances have been proposed as alternative ...

PURPOSE: Endotracheal tube intra-cuff pressure should be maintained between 20 and 30 cmH(2)O to prevent damage to the tracheal wall. However, cuff pressure is rarely measured, and clinicians estimate cuff pressure poorly. The goal of the present study was to predict the cuff volume that produces optimal cuff pressure either from ...

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are core regulators of mRNA transcript stability and translation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes alike. Genome-wide studies in yeast have shown intriguing relations between the expression dynamics of RBPs, the structure of post-transcriptional regulatory networks of RBP-mRNA binding interactions and noise reduction in post-transcriptionally regulated expression profiles. Here ...

The short-term (96 h) toxic effects of two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), naphthalene (NAP) and pyrene (PYR), on the common prawn (Palaemon serratus) were investigated in laboratory bioassays, including a fitness related assay based on the post-exposure swimming velocity. Other effect criteria were biomarkers of neurotoxicity, oxidative stress and bioenergetics, and ...

To cite this article: Celik M, Tuncer A, Soyer OU, Saçkesen C, Tanju Besler H, Kalayci O. Oxidative stress in the airways of children with asthma and allergic rhinitis. Pediatric Allergy Immunology 2012: 00.. ABSTRACT: Introduction:  Even though it is well known that oxidant stress plays an important role in ...

Spatially focal source estimates for magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) data can be obtained by imposing a minimum ℓ(1) -norm constraint on the distribution of the source currents. Anatomical information about the expected locations and orientations of the sources can be included in the source models. In particular, the sources ...

BACKGROUND: To investigate the prognostic value of positive-to-negative changes in hormone receptor (HR) status after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) in patients with HR-positive breast cancer. METHODS: Data from 224 stage II-III breast cancer patients with positive HR status before NCT who had residual disease in the breast after NCT were collected. ...

The human intestinal tract is colonized by a myriad of microbes that have developed intimate interactions with the host. In healthy individuals, this complex ecosystem remains stable and resilient to stressors. There is significant attention on the understanding of the composition and function of this intestinal microbiota in health and ...

Objective:Cancer affects both patients and their caregivers. Caregiver burden may change during different stages of the patients' cancer trajectory. Limited research has focused on the impact of being a caregiver, assessed by the caregiver's mental health and quality of life (QOL) during the curative and the palliative phases of the ...

Objective:This study examines predictors of caregiver distress among community-based palliative care clients. Analyses are based upon interRAI Palliative Care (interRAI PC) assessment data from palliative home care programs in three regions in Ontario, Canada.Method:The study sample involved all community-based palliative care clients in Ontario who were assessed with the interRAI ...

Objectives. Available pharmacotherapies treat some adults with ADHD inadequately. A small literature suggests that glutamate modulation could have effects on ADHD. Methods. Memantine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, was titrated to a maximum dose of 10 mg BID in 34 adult subjects aged 18-55 who met DSM-IV criteria for ADHD ...

The Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC) convened its 5th National APAHC Conference in Boston March 3-5 2011. The conference and its theme, "Preparing Psychologists for a Rapidly Changing Health Care Environment," brought psychologists from academic health centers together to examine how psychology can adapt to and help ...

Sinensetin is a rare polymethoxylated flavone found in certain citrus fruits. In this study, we investigated the effects of sinensetin on lipid metabolism in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Sinensetin decreased the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP1c), suggesting its antiadipogeneic property via downreguation of SREBP1c. Also, sinensetin increased the ...

In recent years, the problem of reconstructing the connectivity in large neural circuits ("connectomics") has re-emerged as one of the main objectives of neuroscience. Classically, reconstructions of neural connectivity have been approached anatomically, using electron or light microscopy and histological tracing methods. This paper describes a statistical approach for connectivity ...

Hypermethioninemic patients exhibit a variable degree of neurological dysfunction. However, the mechanisms involved in these alterations have not been completely clarified. Cholinergic system has been implicated in many physiological processes, including cognitive performances, as learning, and memory. Parameters of cholinergic signaling have already been characterized in zebrafish brain. Since zebrafish ...

The B10.M mouse strain represents a model for male subfertility as it produces a significantly low number of offspring. The only known male reproductive phenotype of this strain is its high frequency of sperm-head morphological abnormalities (44.7 ± 2.4 %). We previously reported that this phenotype was the product of ...

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is now one of the most frequently performed abdominal surgical procedures in the world. The most common major complication is bile duct injury, which can have catastrophic repercussions for patients and it has been suggested that intraoperative cholangiography may reduce the rate of bile duct injury. Whether this ...

Odds ratios (ORs) are widely used in scientific research to demonstrate the associations between outcome variables and covariates (risk factors) of interest, and are often described in language suitable for risks or probabilities, but odds and probabilities are related, not equivalent. In situations where the outcome is not rare (e.g., ...

Pleiotropy has played an important role in understanding quantitative traits. However, the extensiveness of this effect in the genome and its consequences for plant improvement have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to identify pleiotropic quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in maize using Bayesian multiple interval mapping. ...

A comprehensive examination of the kinetic liquid model (Wang et al 2010 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 22 455104) is carried out by fitting the structural relaxation time of 26 different glass-forming liquids in a wide temperature range, including most of the well-studied materials. Careful analysis of the compiled reported data reveals ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the psychosocial differences among obese pediatric patients, particularly those who are "extremely obese" as compared to "obese." Information was collected for 249 subjects at a multidisciplinary treatment clinic for obese youth. A battery of measures was administered and demographic data and height/weight ...

Anatase TiO2 with specifically exposed facets has been extensively studied for maximizing its photocatalytic activity. However, most previous preparation methods involve high-pressure processing and corrosive chemicals. Few works have been conducted on hierarchical composite nanostructures assembled from well-defined TiO2 nanocrystals. Here, we report a facile method for the preparation of ...

An 82-year-old woman presented to our hospital in April 2009 complaining of sensations of a descending bladder and residual urine, and frequent urination. She had given birth to two children. She had undergone simple total hysterectomy for uterine myoma at another hospital in 1974 and anterior colporrhaphy for anterior vaginal ...

Supercritical carbon dioxide processing of poly-L: -lactide (PLLA)/hydroxyapatite (nHA) nanocomposites was investigated as a means to prepare foams suitable as scaffolds in bone tissue engineering applications. For given foaming parameters, addition of nHA to the PLLA gave reduced cell sizes and improved homogeneity in the size distribution, but did not ...

Polycomb group (PcG) and trithorax group (trxG) proteins are key regulators of homeotic genes and have central roles in cell proliferation, growth and development. In animals, PcG and trxG proteins form higher order protein complexes that contain SET domain proteins with histone methyltransferase activity, and are responsible for the different ...

Theory predicts that if particular morphological features correlate with "genetic" quality-i.e., mating with individuals bearing those characteristics increases fitness-selection favors preferences for these features. Both developmental instability (DI)-which emerges morphologically as small random deviations from perfect symmetry, i.e., fluctuating asymmetry (FA)-and sexually dimorphic traits due to variation in sex hormones, ...

To identify the origin of the experimentally observed nitrogen over- and understoichiometry in TiAlN thin films, various point defect configurations were studied by ab initio calculations in terms of formation energies, equilibrium volume and elastic moduli. From formation energies and comparison to existing experimental equilibrium volume and elasticity data, it ...

In this study, we examined linear and curvilinear correlations of fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and white matter volume with age by using brain structural and diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a large number of healthy children and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and region-of-interest (ROI) analyses. We collected data ...

2-Arachidonoylglicerol (2-AG) is an endocannabinoid that mimics the pharmacological effects of Δ(9) tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of the plant Cannabis sativa. It is present in many mammalian tissues, such as brain, liver, spleen, heart and kidney, where it exerts different biological effects either receptor mediated or independently of receptor activation. ...

Abstract: Background: Spinal infections are an important clinical problem that often require aggressive medical therapy, and sometimes even surgery. Known risk factors are advanced age, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, immunosuppression, alcoholism, long-term steroid use, concomitant infections, poly-trauma, malignant tumor, and previous surgery or invasive procedures (discography, chemonucleolysis, and surgical procedures ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive disease of the central nervous system (CNS) provoking disability and neurological symptoms. The exact causes of SM are unknown, even if it is characterized by focal inflammatory lesions in CNS accompanied by autoimmune reaction against myelin. Indeed, many drugs able to modulate the ...

HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors have consistently demonstrated a relative risk reduction of death and myocardial infarction ranging between 29 and 35%. Nevertheless, in spite of significant improvement in prevention, cardiovascular disease remains the main cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. This significant residual risk observed in approximately 70% of ...

The aim of this study was to analyze correlations among the annual rate of gray matter volume change, age, gender, and cerebrovascular risk factors in 381 healthy community-dwelling subjects with a large age range by applying a longitudinal design over 6 years using brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs). Brain MRI ...

A poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate) (PDMAEMA) homopolymer with both thermoresponsive and cationic characteristics was applied to a vector for use in deposition transfection. PDMAEMA with a molecular weight of 2.5 × 105 g mol-1 was synthesized by photo-induced radical polymerization. Polyplexes approximately 750 nm in size were formed by mixing PDMAEMA with luciferase-encoding ...

BACKGROUND: Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) receives rich sympathetic innervations that may contribute to TMJ pain through the local release of sympathomimetic amines. The aim of this study was to determine whether blockade of β-adrenoceptors in the TMJ of male and female rats reduces formalin-induced TMJ nociceptive behaviour. METHODS: We co-administrated each ...

We report on a low-cost, innovative approach for synthesizing prepatterned, magnetic nanostructures, the shapes and dimensions of which can be easily tuned to meet requirements for next-generation data storage technology. The magnetic nanostructures consist of self-assembled Co nanodots and nanowires embedded in yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) matrices. The controllable size and ...

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is increasingly linked to coronary heart disease risk. Aim of this study was to test the hypothesis whether this association is due to penile atherosclerosis. We evaluated the prevalence and severity of penile atherosclerosis in relation to coronary and peripheral atherosclerosis. Between January and June 2010, a ...

The Plasmodium falciparum genome is equipped with several subtelomeric gene families that are implicated in parasite virulence and immune evasion. Members of these families are uniformly positioned within heterochromatic domains and are thus subject to variegated expression. The best-studied example is that of the var family encoding the major parasite ...

The present study shows that co-administration of curcumin and a orally bioactive alkylphospholipid perifosine results in a significant increase in colorectal cancer cell apoptosis and a marked inhibition of cell growth both in vitro and in vivo. This novel combinatorial regimen leads to changes of multiple cell signaling pathways including ...

Granulomatous slack skin (GSS) is a rare cutaneous disorder characterized by the evolution of circumscribed erythematous loose skin masses, especially in the body folds, and histologically by a loss of elastic fibers and granulomatous T-cell infiltrates. This disease is often associated with preceding or successive lymphoproliferative malignancies, especially Mycosis Fungoides ...

In situ temperature-dependent micro-Raman scattering and x-ray diffraction have been performed to study atomic vibration, lattice parameter and structural transition of proton-conducting Ba(Zr(0.8-x)Ce(x)Y (0.2))O(2.9) (BZCY) ceramics (x = 0.0-0.8) synthesized by the glycine-nitrate combustion process. The Raman vibrations have been identified and their frequencies increase with decreasing x as the heavier Ce(4+) ...

We aimed at identifying novel regulators of skin wound healing (WH), in an epidermal scratch WH assay, by a small interfering RNA (siRNA) silencing approach. Several transcription factors have been previously reported to affect wound repair. We here show that gene silencing of the transcription factor CAAT enhancer-binding protein γ ...

BACKGROUND: To investigate changes in heat pain threshold and modifications in heat pain processing during pregnancy and labour, seventy-six nulliparous pregnant women were enrolled in two studies. METHODS: In the first study (psychophysical), 60 pregnant women underwent a quantitative sensory testing (QST) investigating heat perception in two body areas (right ...

Intravenous alteplase is the only approved treatment for acute ischemic stroke. Tenecteplase, a genetically engineered mutant tissue plasminogen activator, is an alternative thrombolytic agent. In this phase 2B trial, we randomly assigned 75 patients to receive alteplase (0.9 mg per kilogram of body weight) or tenecteplase (0.1 mg per kilogram ...

Biodegradation of a xanthene dyes was investigated for the first time using anaerobic granular sludge. On a first screening, biomass was able to decolorize, at different extents, six azo dye solutions: acid orange 7, direct black 19, direct blue 71, mordant yellow 10, reactive red 2 and reactive red 120 ...

BACKGROUND: Intradermal skin testing of the clinically important antibiotics ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, and rifampicin in the case of suspected allergies to antibiotics is poorly standardized. For clinical practice, standardized procedures and protocols are desired. METHODS: Fifteen healthy volunteers were tested with different concentrations of the antibiotics as well as with appropriate ...

Several studies support a protective effect of dietary magnesium against type 2 diabetes, but a harmful effect for iron. Since diabetes has been linked to pancreatic cancer, intake of these nutrients may be also associated with this cancer. We examined the association between dietary intake of magnesium, total iron and ...

Aims:  The aim of this study was to evaluate whether prophylactic magnesium sulfate given in women with mild preeclampsia or gestational hypertension brings any significant change in umbilical artery and fetal middle cerebral artery pulsatility index. Material and Methods:  Forty-eight women with gestational age greater than 34 weeks with mild preeclampsia ...

New ultrasound parameters, potentially predictive of tumor response to chemotherapy, were sought after analyzing details of vascular architecture of mammary tumors during chemotherapy. Tumor-bearing rats were separated into untreated or docetaxel-treated group (6 mg/kg/week). Power Doppler Index and vascular contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) reference endpoints (Peak, area under the curve (AUC), blood ...

This paper examines the perception and implementation of scientific knowledge among Norwegian environmental bureaucrats in the process of preserving biodiversity. Based on interviews with environmental officials and scientists, and document studies, the data reveal a mismatch between the ideal administrative world presented by environmental managers, and the empirical reality of ...