The aim of this study was to determine whether dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (DCE-CT) and the slope method can provide absolute measures of hepatic blood perfusion from the hepatic artery (HA) and portal vein (PV) at experimentally varied blood flow rates. Ten anesthetized 40-kg pigs underwent DCE-CT of the liver ...

Aurora kinase A (AURKA) is an important mitotic kinase involved in the G2/M transition, centrosome maturation and separation, and spindle formation in somatic cells. We used transgenic models that specifically overexpress in mouse oocytes either wild-type (WT-AURKA) or a catalytically inactive (kinase-dead) (KD-AURKA) AURKA to gain new insights regarding the ...

Combinational therapy with small RNA inhibitory agents against multiple viral targets allows efficient inhibition of viral production by controlling gene expression at critical time points. Here we explore combinations of different classes of therapeutic anti-HIV-1 RNAs expressed from within the context of an intronic MCM7 (minichromosome maintenance complex component-7) platform ...

H-Dmt-D-Arg-Phe-Lys-NH(2) ([Dmt(1)]DALDA) is a synthetic tetrapeptide with extraordinary selectivity for the mu-opioid receptor and is an extremely potent analgesic. [Dmt(1) ]DALDA is unusual in the way that the greater part of its analgesic potency appears to be produced by its actions in the spinal cord. Furthermore, [Dmt(1) ]DALDA inhibits norepinephrine ...

The system of local health departments (LHDs) in the United States has the potential to advance a locally oriented public health response in obesity control and reduce geographic disparities. However, the extent to which obesity prevention programs correspond to local obesity levels is unknown. This study examines the extent to ...

To explore the extent to which U.S. research institutions are meeting or exceeding National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation mandates to provide instruction in responsible conduct of research (RCR). In summer 2011, the authors sent an e-mail survey to officials responsible for overseeing RCR instructional programs at the ...

We report the challenging case of a 1-week-old, term, 2.4 kg neonate with Goldenhar syndrome (including microcephaly, left microtia, left facial palsy, dextro-scoliosis of the cervical spine, and cervico-thoracic levoscoliosis), multiple ventricular septal defects, a type B interrupted aortic arch, a large patent ductus arteriosis, and radiographic and clinical signs concerning ...

Accumulating evidence strongly supports the premise that testosterone may be a key player in fetal programming on hypertension. Studies have shown that gestational protein restriction doubles the plasma testosterone levels in pregnant rats. In this study, we hypothesized that elevated testosterone levels in response to gestational protein restriction were caused ...

In 2000, the National Center for Research Resources mandated that general research centers create a research subject advocate (RSA) position. In 2008, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium endorsed a new advocacy model based on four RSA Best Practice Functions. The authors surveyed CTSA centers to learn about ...

The Dutch Society for Endoscopic Surgery together with the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology initiated a multidisciplinary working group to develop a guideline on minimally invasive surgery to formulate multidisciplinary agreements for minimally invasive surgery aiming towards better patient care and safety. The guideline development group consisted of general ...

This study examines whether partnership-related measures in the second version of the National Public Health Performance Standards (NPHPS) are useful in evaluating level of activity as well as identifying latent constructs that exist among local public health systems (LPHSs). In a sample of 110 LPHSs, descriptive analysis was conducted to ...

Optimal perioperative analgesia for infants and children after major abdominal surgery poses a challenge when central neuraxial techniques are contraindicated. As a regional anesthesia technique, the transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block has been shown to reduce opioid consumption and improve pain scores compared to traditional perioperative pain strategies. Accordingly, TAP ...

This study seeks to provide a review of the clinical data published as of July 2011 concerning the postsurgical adhesion barrier, Seprafilm (chemically modified hyaluronic acid and carboxymethylcelulose; Genzyme Corporation, Cambridge, MA). Included articles detail the application of Seprafilm for intraabdominal uses that have been approved (on-label) and those considered ...

: To examine associations between the densities of available parkland, parkland provided per capita, and levels of physical activity (PA) and overweight in urban United States. : Cross-sectional correlation research using data drawn from the Trust for Public Land's 2010 City Park Facts and The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System ...

Policies restricting indoor worksite tobacco use began being implemented more than a decade ago. More recently, the scope of these policies has been expanding to outdoors, with hospitals leading the trend in restricting smoking throughout their grounds. However, research on the effects such bans have on employees is scarce. The ...

Although substantial evidence exists that sperm ATP production via glycolysis is required for mammalian sperm function and male fertility, conflicting reports involving multiple species have appeared regarding the ability of individual glycolytic or mitochondrial substrates to support the physiological changes that occur during capacitation. Several mouse models with defects in ...

To examine relationships among applicant personality, Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) performance, and medical school acceptance offers. The authors conducted an observational study of applicants who participated in the MMI at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine during the 2010-2011 admissions cycle and responded to the Big Five Inventory measuring ...

Since 1995, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM) has created policies to prevent medical student mistreatment, instituted safe mechanisms for reporting mistreatment, provided resources for discussion and resolution, and educated faculty and residents. In this study, the authors examined the incidence, severity, and sources of perceived mistreatment ...

The aim of this study was to provide a single site resource for investigators, clinicians, and others seeking preclinical, animal, and human investigational studies concerning the postsurgical, anti-adhesion barrier Seprafilm™ (Genzyme Corporation, Cambridge, MA). All published preclinical, animal, human extra-abdominal research as of July 2011 have been summarized and included ...

Childhood obesity has grown into a national epidemic since the 1980s. Many school-based intervention efforts that target childhood obesity involve curriculum and programming that demands instructional time, which disincentivizes school participation. Stand-biased classrooms are an environmental intervention that promotes standing rather than sitting by utilizing standing height desks that allow ...

Our work focuses on bone remodeling with a multiscale breadth that ranges from modeling intracellular and intercellular RANK/RANKL signaling to tissue dynamics, by developing a multilevel modeling framework. Several important findings provide clear evidences of the multiscale properties of bone formation and of the links between RANK/RANKL and bone density ...

CONTEXT:: Recently, studies using a social ecological perspective have identified important micro- and macro-level risk factors for excessive adiposity in youth. Although considerable research exists examining these relationships, few studies have applied a socioecological approach to simultaneously examine both micro- and macro-level factors in young children while objectively assessing adiposity ...

Partnerships among multiple organizations across a range of sectors that bring together multiple perspectives are a common way of addressing community health and building capacity. To function successfully, partnerships depend on the careful orchestration of a collaborative culture and the facilitation of collective action. Using a systematic method, we developed ...

: To describe a project that used mini-grants plus technical assistance to disseminate evidence-based programs, to understand how the project worked in different settings, and to generate recommendations for future programming and evaluation. : Process evaluation using program records, activity forms completed by grantees, interviews, and focus groups. : Churches ...

Although research has documented that social support is a positive pathway to healthpromoting behavioral practices, very few longitudinal studies have assessed the relationship between social support and health-promoting behaviors among older, diverse women. Three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) survey assessed whether or not changes in ...

We provide a new procedure to quantify in situ corneal oxygen uptake using the micropolarographic Clark electrode. Traditionally, upon placing a membrane-covered Clark microelectrode onto a human cornea, the resulting polarographic signal is interpreted as the oxygen partial pressure at the anterior corneal surface. However, the Clark electrode operates at ...

: Considering that 42% of children and adolescents and 91% of dentate adults experience dental caries, oral disease is a public health problem. Although the population's oral health is improving, certain subgroups remain at increased risk for dental disease. : To assess the oral health status at the substate level ...

Rochester's Healthy Home was a hands-on home environmental health museum that educated more than 3500 visitors between June 2006 and December 2009. The Healthy Home provided visitors with the tools, resources, and motivation to make their homes healthier by reducing environmental hazards. The Healthy Home focused on empowering low-income renters ...

: Availability of public neighborhood parks is associated with physical activity. Little is known about how parks contribute to population energy balance. : This study estimated energy expenditure associated with the use of neighborhood parks and compared energy expenditure by activity areas within parks and by neighborhood race/ethnicity and income. ...

: The recess environment in schools has been identified as an integral part of school-based programs to enhance physical activity (PA). The purpose of this study was to report pilot findings on the extent to which the Ready for Recess intervention was associated with a different amount of increase in ...

Public health surveillance and epidemiology are the foundations for disease prevention because they provide the factual basis from which agencies can set priorities, plan programs, and take actions to protect the public's health. Surveillance for noninfectious diseases associated with exposure to agents in the environment like lead and pesticides has ...

Reverse engineering is the problem of inferring the structure of a network of interactions between biological variables from a set of observations. In this paper, we propose an optimization algorithm, called MORE, for the reverse engineering of biological networks from time series data. The model inferred by MORE is a ...

The serotonin system is implicated in a variety of psychiatric disorders whose clinical presentation and response to treatment differ between males and females, as well as with aging. However, human neurobiological studies are limited. Sex differences in the cerebral metabolic response to an increase in serotonin concentrations were measured, as ...

A prospective intermediate-term evaluation of toxicities associated with bortezomib therapy for antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) and desensitization was conducted. Patients were graded for bortezomib-related toxicities: hematologic and gastrointestinal toxicities by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events and peripheral neuropathy by modified Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy questionnaire and Common Terminology Criteria ...

1-O-octadecyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (PAF) belonging to the class of single-chained ether phospholipids is widely known from its essential biological activities. There is a growing body of evidence that some significant aspects of PAF actions are connected with its capability to direct intercalation into biomembranes' environment. Although this mechanism is of great importance ...

Pompe disease is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) caused by deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme acid α-glucosidase (GAA). Many disease-causing mutated GAA retain enzymatic activity but are not translocated from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to lysosomes. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is the only treatment for Pompe disease but remains ...

Luminescent signals can be used by animals for a number of purposes, including courtship and defense, sometimes by the same individual. However, the relative costs of producing these different behaviors are largely unknown. In the marine ostracod Photeros annecohenae, males utilize extracellular luminescence for complex courtship displays, and both males ...

Although kinematic analysis of individual fin rays provides valuable insight into the contribution of median fins to C-start performance, it paints an incomplete picture of the complex movements and deformation of the flexible fin surface. To expand our analysis of median fin function during the escape response of bluegill sunfish ...

To return to the ecologically optimal zone of the beach, the sandhopper Talitrus saltator (Montagu) maintains a constant sea-land direction based on the sun and moon compasses. In this study, we investigated the role of the skylight gradient of luminance in sun and moon identification under natural and artificial conditions ...

Ultraviolet (UV) vision plays an important role in interspecific and intraspecific communication in many animals. However, UV vision and its adaptive significance have been investigated in only approximately 1% of more than 5000 species of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae), renowned for their unique, complex eyes that support exceptional spatial acuity ...

The activity of key metabolic enzymes is regulated by the ubiquitin ligases that control the function of the cyclins; therefore the activity of these ubiquitin ligases explains the coordination of cell-cycle progression with the supply of substrates necessary for cell duplication. APC/C (anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome)-Cdh1, the ubiquitin ligase that controls G1- ...

The visual pigments of rods and cones were studied in eight Fennoscandian populations of nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius). The wavelength of maximum absorbance of the rod pigment (λ(max)) varied between populations from 504 to 530 nm. Gene sequencing showed that the rod opsins of all populations were identical in amino ...

Mammary gland capacity is influenced by the number of secretory cells in the gland, the activity of those cells and the size and arrangement of the alveoli that they form. Although reproductive experience has been shown to affect the total number of secretory cells in the gland, its potential effect ...

The fast-start escape response is critically important to avoid predation, and axial movements driving it have been studied intensively. Large median dorsal and anal fins located near the tail have been hypothesized to increase acceleration away from the threat, yet the contribution of flexible median fins remains undescribed. To investigate ...

Tracking distant odor sources is crucial to foraging, courtship and reproductive success for many animals including fish, flies and birds. Upon encountering a chemical plume in flight, Drosophila melanogaster integrates the spatial intensity gradient and temporal fluctuations over the two antennae, while simultaneously reducing the amplitude and frequency of rapid ...

Sedentary and territorial rockfish of the genus Sebastes exhibit distinctive homing ability and can travel back to an original location after displacements of metres or even kilometres. However, little is known about the behavioural and sensory mechanisms involved in homing. Although our previous study demonstrated that nocturnal black rockfish Sebastes ...

The extent to which early stress exposure is detrimental to Darwinian fitness may depend on its severity, with mild stress exposure actually having a stimulatory and, possibly, beneficial effect through a hormetic response to the stressful stimulus. We need to understand such hormetic processes to determine how the early environment ...

Although individual electronic tagging using passive integrated acoustic (PIT) tags is established, it is mainly for fish >60 mm in length and is unsuitable for fish of <30 mm, like zebrafish. We used radio frequency identification (RFID) microtags (1 mm in diameter and 6 mm in length, with a mass ...

We examine here evaporative water loss, economy and partitioning at ambient temperatures from 14 to 33°C for the monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides), a microbiotheriid marsupial found only in temperate rainforests of Chile. The monito's standard evaporative water loss (2.58 mg g(-1) h(-1) at 30°C) was typical for a marsupial ...

Anthropogenic and climate factors increase the frequency of problematic cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater. Among other toxins, some cyanobacteria produce microcystins (MCs), which inhibit phosphatases type 1 and type 2A and provokes oxidative stress. Toxic cyanobacteria affect the growth, survival and reproduction of zooplankton, particularly those from the genus Daphnia, which ...