Quantitative genetics (QG) analyses variation in traits of humans, other animals, or plants in ways that take account of the genealogical relatedness of the individuals whose traits are observed. "Classical" QG, where the analysis of variation does not involve data on measurable genetic or environmental entities or factors, is reformulated ...

While baited deer models were under observation nine Cephenemyia jellisoni Townsend (Diptera: Oestridae) females and seven C. apicata Bennett & Sabrosky engaged in a risk-spreading larviposition behaviour by larvipositing on models only once and then flying away. Additionally, analysis of 225 unobserved larvipostions in which larvae were trapped in adhesive ...

The combination of the wide availability of protein backbone and side-chain NMR chemical shifts with advances in understanding of their relationship to protein structure makes these parameters useful for the assessment of structural-dynamic protein models. A new chemical shift predictor (PPM) is introduced, which is solely based on physical-chemical contributions ...

This review examines the global literature regarding the impact of parental HIV/AIDS on children's psychological well-being. Fifty one articles reporting quantitative data from a total of 30 studies were retrieved and reviewed. Findings were mixed but tended to show that AIDS orphans and vulnerable children had poorer psychological well-being in ...

The link between the microbes in the human gut and the development of obesity, cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndromes, such as type 2 diabetes, is becoming clearer. However, because of the complexity of the microbial community, the functional connections are less well understood. Studies in both mice and humans are ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In a recent exploratory randomised trial we found that a novel, internet-based psychoeducation programme for bipolar disorder (Beating Bipolar) was relatively easy to deliver and had a modest effect on psychological quality of life. We sought to explore the experiences of participants with respect to feasibility, acceptability and ...

Multiple myeloma (MM) is classically illustrated by a desynchronized cytokine system with rise in inflammatory cytokines. There are recent reports which emphasized the potential role of angiogenesis in the development of MM. Role of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) is well documented in the pathogenesis of solid tumors, but little is known ...

Drought-induced anomalies in vegetation condition over wide areas can be observed by using time-series satellite remote sensing data. Previous methods to assess the anomalies may include limitations in considering (1) the seasonality in terms of each vegetation-cover type, (2) cumulative damage during the drought event, and (3) the application to ...

The tiered ommatidia of the Eastern Pale Clouded yellow butterfly, Colias erate, contain nine photoreceptor cells, four of which contribute their rhabdomeral microvilli to the distal tier of the rhabdom. We analyzed the visual pigments and spectral sensitivities of these distal photoreceptors in both sexes of Colias erate. A subset ...

In a previous work, we identified 6-propylbenzofuran-7-ol as an off-flavor compound formed from ascorbic acid and (E)-hex-2-enal in a test apple beverage. In this study we elucidate the pathway by which 6-propylbenzofuran-7-ol formed. Isotope labeling studies revealed that the propyl group of 6-propylbenzofuran-7-ol derives from (E)-hex-2-enal and that 6-propylbenzofuran-7-ol contains ...

Peptide segment couplings are now widely utilized in protein chemical synthesis. One of the key structures for the strategy is the peptide thioester. Peptide thioester condensation, in which a C-terminal peptide thioester is selectively activated by silver ions then condensed with an amino component, is a powerful tool. But the ...

A new Receptor-Dependent LQTA-QSAR approach, RD-LQTA-QSAR, is proposed as a new 4D-QSAR method. It is an evolution of receptor independent LQTA-QSAR. This approach uses the free GROMACS package to carry out molecular dynamics simulations and generates a conformational ensemble profile for each compound. Such an ensemble is used to build ...

Less than 1% of all primary TKAs are performed with an all-polyethylene tibial component, although recent studies indicate all-polyethylene tibial components are equal to or better than metal-backed ones. We asked whether the metal-backed tibial component was clinically superior to the all-polyethylene tibial component in primary TKAs regarding revision rates ...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the clinical performance of the Ambu Aura-i (Aura-i) in children. AIM: To compare the Aura-i with the air-Q intubating laryngeal airway (air-Q) for the purposes of fiberoptic-guided tracheal intubation. BACKGROUND: The Aura-i is a new supraglottic airway designed for tracheal intubation. MATERIALS/METHODS: One hundred twenty children, ages ...

Genomic alterations that lead to oncogene activation and tumour suppressor loss are important driving forces for cancer development. Although these changes can accumulate progressively during cancer evolution, recent studies have revealed that many cancer cells harbour chromosomes bearing tens to hundreds of clustered genome rearrangements. In this Review, we describe ...

Rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor (RGNT) of the fourth ventricle is a new addition to the WHO classification of central nervous system tumors. To date, 72 cases have been described in literature. In the present study, we report the clinical and imaging features, with detailed histopathological and immunohistochemical profile, of eight cases. ...

The Eyes Absent (EYA) proteins, first described in the context of fly eye development, are now implicated in processes as disparate as organ development, innate immunity, DNA damage repair, photoperiodism, angiogenesis, and cancer metastasis. These functions are associated with an unusual combination of biochemical activities: tyrosine phosphatase and threonine phosphatase ...

The latest recommendations for building dynamic health behavior theories emphasize that cognitions, emotions, and behaviors - and the nature of their inter-relationships - can change over time. This paper describes the development and psychometric validation of four scales created to measure smoking-related causal attributions, perceived illness severity, event-related emotions, and ...

SUMMARY Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is known to increase in-hospital mortality, but little is known about its association with long-term health. Two hundred and thirty-seven deaths occurred among 707 patients with MRSA infection at the time of hospitalization and/or nasal colonization followed for almost 4 years after discharge from ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Early detection and treatment of the metabolic syndrome may prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Our aim was to assess remission of the metabolic syndrome and its determinants after a population based screening without predefined intervention in the Netherlands. METHODS: In 2006 we detected 406 metabolic syndrome cases (The ...

Abstract A cost analysis study calculates resources needed to deliver an intervention and can provide useful information on affordability for service providers and policy-makers. We conducted cost analyses of both a peer health worker (PHW) and a mHealth (mobile phone) support intervention. Excluding supervisory staffing costs, total yearly costs for ...

The present study examined whether implicit motion information from static images influences perceived duration of image presentation. In Experiments 1 and 2, we presented observers with images of a human and an animal character in running and standing postures. The results revealed that the perceived presentation duration of running images ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro the Knoop hardness in the top and bottom of composite photo activated by different methods when different mold materials were used. Z250 (3M ESPE) and XL2500 halogen unit (3M ESPE) were used. For hardness test, conical restorations were made in ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Instrumental deliveries are commonly performed in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with rates of 12 -- 17% in most centres. Knowing the exact position of the fetal head is a pre-requisite for safe instrumental delivery. Traditionally, diagnosis of the fetal head position is made on transvaginal digital examination ...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of minimally invasive transoral en bloc resection of superficial pharyngeal and laryngeal cancers. METHODS: Forty-one superficial lesions (from 35 patients) were resected transorally under a surgical microscope using a monopolar cautery. Quality of life (QOL) was assessed ...

The interaction between one polychlorobiphenyl (3,3',4,4',-tetrachlorobiphenyl, coded PCB77) and the four DNA nucleic acid-base is studied by means of quantum mechanics calculations in stacked conformations. It is shown that even if the intermolecular dispersion energy is the largest component of the total interaction energy, some other contributions play a non ...

The World Health Organization's annual report World Health Statistics 2012 was recently published. In addition to annually published indicators of health, this year's report contains a highlighted new section on non-communicable diseases and their impact on world health. The section gives particular attention to hypertension and obesity. Interestingly, despite worldwide ...

BACKGROUND: Computer-aided surgery aims to improve implant alignment in TKA but has only been adopted by a minority for routine use. A novel approach, navigated freehand bone cutting (NFC), is intended to achieve wider acceptance by eliminating the need for cumbersome, implant-specific mechanical jigs and avoiding the expense of navigation. ...

AIM: Inactivated Orf virus (ORFV, Parapoxvirus ovis) demonstrates strong antiviral activity in animal models including a human hepatitis B virus (HBV)-transgenic mouse. In addition, expression of interferon (IFN)-γ and interleukin-10 (IL-10) was induced after administration of inactivated ORFV in these mice. IFN-γ and IL-10 are known to elicit antifibrotic activity. ...

BACKGROUND: The treatment of localized esophageal cancer has been debated controversially over the past decades. Neoadjuvant treatment was used empirically, but evidence was limited due to the lack of high-quality confirmatory studies. Meanwhile, data have become much clearer due to recently published well-conducted randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses. METHODS: Neoadjuvant ...

Highly variable (HV) drugs are defined as those for which within-subject variability (%CV) in bioequivalence (BE) measures is 30% or greater. Because of this high variability, studies designed to show whether generic HV drugs are bioequivalent to their corresponding HV reference drugs may need to enroll large numbers of subjects ...

Due to depth of focus constraints, the acquisition of a single 2-D completely in-focus image of 3-D objects characterized by a relevant depth dimension is not possible with a standard light microscope. Since the Seventies numerous methods have been proposed to overcome this problem, mainly through different fusion processing techniques ...

BACKGROUND: This study is a randomized, prospective, investigation of the relationships between clinical trial design, patient expectancy and the outcome of treatment with antidepressant medication. Method Adult out-patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) were randomized to either placebo-controlled (PC, 50% probability of receiving active medication) or comparator (COMP, 100% probability ...

Human pancreatic cancer is currently one of the fourth leading causes of cancer-related mortality with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5 %. Since pancreatic carcinoma is largely refractory to conventional therapies, there is a strong medical need for the development of novel and innovative cancer preventive strategies. The forkhead ...

Low hit rates for lead compounds and high attrition remain a major problem for drug development. The reasons for compound failure range from poor pharmacokinetics to toxic metabolites and adverse drug interactions; all of which are frequently mediated by cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenases (CYPs). However, despite some 30 years of assay ...

BACKGROUND: Surgery for small intestinal neuroendocrine tumours (SI-NETs) is limited by metastatic disease in most patients. However, resection of the primary lesion alone has been advocated in patients with unresectable liver metastases. The present systematic review investigated the value of surgical resection of the primary lesion in patients with unresectable ...

1. Glucocorticoids are necessary for fetal development but clinical and experimental studies suggest excess exposure may be detrimental to health in the short and in the longer term. 2. Exposure of the fetus to synthetic glucocorticoids can occur if the mother has a medical condition requiring glucocorticoid therapy (such as ...

RATIONALE: The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a key neural region involved in opiate-related reward memory processing. AMPA receptor transmission in the mPFC modulates opiate-related reward memory processing, and chronic opiate exposure is associated with alterations in intra-mPFC AMPA receptor function. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to examine ...

BACKGROUND: There have been no reports of human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) encephalitis treatment based on both HHV-6 DNA load and the antiviral agent's concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). PATIENT: A 20-year-old male with a hematological malignancy developed HHV-6 encephalitis 15 days after unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT). He had fever, ...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to establish long-term outcome after elective adult umbilical hernia (AUH) repair. METHODS: Peri- and postoperative data considering all consecutive procedures at our institution during the time span from 1999 to 2009 were retrospectively gathered and followed by a questionnaire and, if needed, a ...

An 11-year-old Caucasian male with history of abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fatigue, emesis and fever on the previous days presented with dehydratation, shock and acute mesenteric ischaemia. Final diagnosis of Addison's disease was made.

Indians have high rates of cardiovascular disease. Hypertension (HTN) is an important modifiable risk factor. There are no comprehensive reviews or a nationally representative study of the burden, treatments and outcomes of HTN in India. A systematic review was conducted to study the trends in prevalence, risk factors and awareness ...

OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: The pathophysiology of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is dominated by an inflammatory response. In the identification of new therapeutic agents, the role of individual cytokines may be essential. Interleukin (IL)-9 is a pleiotropic cytokine recently identified to be involved in various immune responses. In this study, the role ...

In mammals and birds, neuropeptide Y (NPY) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are found in brain areas known to be involved in the control of ingestive behavior and act to increase voluntary food intake. In rats, significant evidence suggest a functional and behavioral interaction between NPY and GABA mediated transmission in ...

In international guidelines, basic restriction limits on the exposure of humans to low-frequency magnetic and electric fields are set with the objective of preventing the generation of phosphenes, visual sensations of flashing light not caused by light. Measured data on magnetophosphenes, i.e. phosphenes caused by a magnetically induced electric field ...

PURPOSE: Fear of discontinuing concomitant anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) may lead to potentially unnecessary and perhaps unsafe polypharmacy. The effect of withdrawing concomitant AEDs on epilepsy control was therefore studied in long-term users of levetiracetam. METHODS: The EULEV cohort followed patients initiating levetiracetam in France in 2005 or 2006 for one ...

Tephrosia vogelii has been used for generations as a pest control material in Africa. Recently, two chemotypes have been reported based on the occurrence (chemotype 1) or absence (chemotype 2) of rotenoids. This could have an impact on the efficacy and reliability of this material for pest control. We report ...

Insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells is tightly regulated by glucose and other nutrients, hormones, and neural factors. The exocytosis of insulin granules is triggered by an elevation of the cytoplasmic Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)) and is further amplified by cyclic AMP (cAMP). Cyclic AMP is formed primarily in response to glucoincretin ...

A large number of novel single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses have been characterised from various environmental sources in the last 5 years. The bulk of these have been from faecal sources, and faecal sampling is an ideal non-invasive pathogen sampling method. We characterised a novel ssDNA from a porcine faecal sample from ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most deadly human cancers because of its high incidence of metastasis. Despite extensive efforts, therapies against metastasis of HCC remain underdeveloped. Vacuole membrane protein 1 (Vmp1) was recently identified to be involved in cancer-relevant processes, however its expression, clinical significances and biological function ...