QUESTION What are the efficacy and safety of nicotine receptor partial agonists for smoking cessation in adults? REVIEW SCOPE Included studies evaluated selective nicotine receptor partial agonists in adult smokers and had ≥ 6 months of follow-up from start of treatment. Studies of lobeline were excluded. Outcomes included smoking abstinence and ...

OBJECTIVE: The peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) gene and PAD4 autoantibodies have been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its pathogenesis. Therefore, methods for accurately determining their levels in the peripheral blood of these patients would be a diagnostic asset. The objective of our study was to adapt the enzyme-linked immunosorbent ...

Please cite this paper as: Hollmeyer et al. (2012) Review: interventions to increase influenza vaccination among healthcare workers in hospitals. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses DOI: 10.1111/irv.12002. Annual influenza vaccination rates among hospital healthcare workers (HCW) are almost universally low despite recommendations from WHO and public health authorities in many countries. ...

BACKGROUND: Single-stage procedures for reconstruction of large cricotracheal defects have been limited in success and malignant immature teratomas in the larynx of an adult have never been reported. METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a case report and literature review. A 27-year-old man presented with 2 weeks of new-onset stridor and ...

The transcriptional corepressor SMRT/HDAC1-associated repressor protein (SHARP) recruits histone deacetylases. Human SHARP protein is thought to function in processes involving steroid hormone responses and the Notch signaling pathway. SHARP consists of RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) in the N-terminal region and the spen paralog and ortholog C-terminal (SPOC) domain in the ...

In a clinical setting, changes in pharmacokinetics due to drug-drug interactions can often directly affect the therapeutic safety and efficacy of drugs. Recently, interest has been shown in drug-drug interactions in the intestine. It is now recognized that changes in the functions of drug transporters substantially influence the absorption of ...

Cationic π-conjugated polymers form an interchain helically π-stacked assembly with anionic chiral compounds that is stabilized by both electrostatic and π-π interactions to hierarchically self-organize into a spherulite with a circularly polarized blue luminescence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a chiroptical spherulite that ...

Background:Effective treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) remains a major challenge due to chemoresistance to drugs including tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). Ethanol and ethanol extracts are known apoptosis inducers. However, cytotoxic effects of ethanol on PCa cells are unclear.Methods:In this study we utilized PC3 and LNCaP cell culture models. ...

We present a theoretical discussion of surface polaritons on a ferroelectric-antiferromagnet with magnetoelectric coupling which allows the magnetic subsystem to be canted. Canting of the antiferromagnet results in weak ferromagnetism. The surface polaritons for a semi-infinite film are calculated for a propagation parallel to the uniaxial easy axis, leading to ...

QUESTION Does citicoline improve recovery after moderate-to-severe acute ischemic stroke in adults? METHODS DESIGN Randomized placebo-controlled trial (International Citicoline Trial on acUte Stroke [ICTUS]). ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00331890. ALLOCATION Concealed.* BLINDING Blinded* (patients, caregivers, clinicians, investigators, outcome assessors, data managers, and steering committee). FOLLOW-UP PERIOD 90 days. SETTING 59 university hospitals in ...

BACKGROUND: Several quality of life (QOL) instruments exist for skull base pathology, however, there have been no attempts to appraise and systematically review these instruments. METHODS: We systematically reviewed MEDLINE, EMBASE, Central, AMED, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, and PsychoInfo for anterior or central skull base QOL instruments to January 2010. ...

Multidetector CT (MDCT) provides new opportunities for hepatic tumor characterization. By coupling high-resolution isotropic datasets with advanced post-processing tools, maps of tumor vascularity can be generated to elucidate characteristic findings. This two-part review describes a range of benign and malignant liver masses, with emphasis on IV contrast-enhanced MDCT features and ...

BACKGROUND: Implantation of exfoliated cancer cells has been suggested as a possible mechanism of local recurrence at the site of colorectal anastomosis. Intraoperative rectal washout has been suggested to eliminate free cancer cells; however, there is no conclusive evidence of a beneficial effect of intraoperative rectal washout on local recurrence ...

Five samples of human midterm fetal uterus and fallopian tube (four donor bodies) were used to assess whether or not processes of angiogenesis are guided by endothelial tip cells (ETCs), and if cytokine-receptors, such as CD117/c-kit and PDGFR-α, are expressed in the microenvironment of the endothelial tubes. CD34 labeled microvessels ...

Mammalian complex V (F1F0-ATP synthase or ATPase) uses the proton gradient to generate ATP during oxidative phosphorylation and requires several helper proteins, including TMEM70, to form the holoenzyme in a stepwise process in which nuclear DNA is combined with mitochondrial DNA-encoded subunits. We report the clinical and molecular findings in ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the true institutional cost of treating invasive fungal infections in light of recent advances in diagnostic techniques and antifungal therapies for both treatment and prophylaxis of these infections. DESIGN: Economic analysis. SETTING: Academic medical center. PATIENTS: A total of 200 patients discharged from the hospital during ...

A current-carrying resonant nanoscale device, simulated by non-adiabatic molecular dynamics, exhibits sharp activation of non-conservative current-induced forces with bias. The result, above the critical bias, is generalized rotational atomic motion with a large gain in kinetic energy. The activation exploits sharp features in the electronic structure, and constitutes, in effect, ...

A physiologically based model proposed by our group has been developed to assess glucose transport and phosphorylation in skeletal muscle. In this study, we investigated whether our model has the ability to detect a glucose-induced increase in glucose transport in skeletal muscle. In particular, we used small-animal positron emission tomography ...

Growing numbers of people with diabetes in the U.S. and worldwide use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) while receiving conventional medical therapy as a means of managing disease and improving quality of life. Although herbal and natural products are the most commonly used forms of CAM, mind-body approaches are also ...

Fibroblasts play a major role in normal cardiac physiology and in the response of the heart to injury and disease. Cardiac electrophysiological research has primarily focused on the mechanisms of remodeling that accompany cardiac disease with an emphasis on myocyte electrophysiology. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the potential ...

Aims and objectives.  To assess the current use of patient satisfaction measures in home health care and to examine the reliability and validity of current measures of patient satisfaction in home health care. Background.  Patient satisfaction has been one of the widely used measures in home health care as an ...

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a chronic condition characterized by fibrosis and scarring of the cardiac valves and damage to the heart muscle, leading to congestive heart failure and death. This prospective cohort study was conducted to investigate the possible relation between the levels of serum adhesion molecules and acute ...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the tissue distribution and antitumor activity of 2-methoxyestradiol (2-ME) nanosuspension compared with 2-ME solution both in vitro and in vivo. 2-ME nanosuspension was made by nanoprecipitation-high-frequency ultrasonication method with the particle size of 168.4 ± 3.2 nm and the zeta potential of -29.79 ± 1.89 mV. ...

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the first phase of the LINKIN Health Study, which aims to evaluate health system functioning within a rural population. Locally relevant data on the health status and service usage of this population, including non-users and users, health service providers traditionally omitted from health services research, and ...

Intermetallics that contain rare-earth elements are particularly interesting because of their temperature-and pressure-dependent structural and physical transitions that make them potential candidates for magnetic applications. This article highlights synthetic routes and structural characterization advancements used to investigate intermetallic materials. Experimental and theoretical examples of three intermetallic structure types - ThCr(2)Si(2), ...

Seismocardiography (SCG) is a non-invasive measurement of the vibrations of the chest caused by the heartbeat. SCG signals can be measured using a miniature accelerometer attached to the chest, and are thus well-suited for unobtrusive and long-term patient monitoring. Additionally, SCG contains information relating to both cardiovascular and respiratory systems. ...

This report describes the case of two pediatric patients who demonstrated echocardiographic evidence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) during the acute phase of Kawasaki disease. The etiology of PH development in this setting is currently unknown, but the authors hypothesize that pulmonary vasculitis may play a significant role. Fortunately, the PH ...

Introduction: We followed patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) receiving specific vasodilator therapy and tested for predictors of clinical outcome. Methods: Thirty-two patients (mean age 39 ± 15 years, 22 women, diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension; PH): 29 with PAH and 3 patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic PH received therapy with either bosentan, sildenafil, ...

Aim:  Previous studies on health transition have focused on single-dimension outcomes and minimally evaluated heterogeneity. This study aimed to explore heterogeneous and multidimensional health-transition patterns on comorbidity, frailty and disability while examining the factors predicting different patterns of health transition. Methods:  This study drew on data from a nationwide and ...

We are interested in identifying human fungal allergens and antigens from species common on water-damaged or damp building materials for use as marker proteins and diagnostic tests. The cellulolytic fungus Chaetomium globosum is common on damp materials in the building environment worldwide. ELISA and immunoblotting tests identified two related proteins ...

Recently, de-Camino-Beck and Lewis (Bull Math Biol 69:1341-1354, 2007) have presented a method that under certain restricted conditions allows computing the basic reproduction ratio [Formula: see text] in a simple manner from life cycle graphs, without, however, giving an explicit indication of these conditions. In this paper, we give various ...

The objectives of this paper are (a) to establish the reliability of relative metabolite concentrations determined with (1)H-MR spectroscopy of the cerebellum using a method appropriate to the constraints of clinical radiology and (b) to record normal values for metabolites within the cerebellum and to look for differences in metabolite ...

Study Type - Therapy (case series) Level of Evidence 4 What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Both the treatment and reconstruction after resection of penoscrotal extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) are of concern among oncological urologists. Reconstruction of large skin defects after wide local resection of this ...

Glycation of apolipoprotein B (apoB) of LDL increases its atherogenicity. Concentrations of both serum glycated apoB and small-dense LDL (SD-LDL) (syn LDL3; D=1.044-1.063 g/ml) are increased in diabetes and are closely correlated. We studied whether SD-LDL is more susceptible to glycation in vitro than more buoyant LDL in statin- and ...

Hydrothermal synthesis of [Cr(III)(2)(OH)(4)Nb(10)O(30)](8-) in gram-scale quantities leads to a new polyoxometalate ion composed of two CrNb(6)O(19) Lindqvist-type units that are fused via shared faces. The two Cr(III) atoms are located in the centre of the molecule and are bridged by two μ(4)-O atoms. Electronic transitions are calculated using density ...

PURPOSE: To confirm the use of the nodal signal intensity (SI) and the 'chemical shift' artefact as diagnostic criteria for detecting nodal metastases from rectal cancer on gadofosveset contrast-enhanced MRI. METHODS: Thirty-three patients underwent a non-enhanced and gadofosveset-enhanced 3D-T1W GRE-MRI at 1.5T. For each lymph node, the SI of the ...

PURPOSE: This paper describes the translation, cultural adaption, and psychometric evaluation of a German version of the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ™), a widely used generic instrument assessing a wide range of proximal outcomes of self-management programs. METHODS: The translation was carried out according to international standards and included forward ...

Commercial cultivars of garlic (Allium sativum) do not produce flowers and seed; hence, information on microgametogenesis and genetic knowledge of this important crop is unavailable. Recently, physiological studies enabled flowering and fertility restoration in garlic bolting genotypes by environmental manipulations, thus broadening of the genetic variation and facilitating genetic studies. ...

Drugs have been discovered in the past mainly either by identification of active components from traditional remedies or by unpredicted discovery. A key motivation for the study of structure based virtual screening is the exploitation of such information to design targeted drugs. In this study, structure based virtual screening was ...

A patient underwent aortic valve closure for de novo aortic insufficiency that had deteriorated to severe insufficiency during six months of support with a continuous flow left ventricular assist device (cf-LVAD). Aortic insufficiency was initially noted one month after LVAD implantation, and then deterioration quickly developed. Right heart catheterization revealed that when ...

Transitional care is a time-limited service to prevent discontinuous care and adverse outcomes, including rehospitalization. To describe transitional care interventions and evidence of benefit or harm in patients hospitalized for acute stroke or myocardial infarction (MI). Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, ...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder. Over the past decades, much research has been conducted to elucidate a single etiological factor and effective pharmacotherapuetics to address the core symptom domains of ASD with limited success. Research has changed focus from behavioral observations of ASD to translating findings ...

BACKGROUND: We present our experience with the use of an immunocompetent medium-sized animal model of tongue cancer that may be suitable for imaging and surgical studies. METHODS: A New Zealand white rabbit model of tongue cancer was created by injecting a VX tumor cell suspension grown in culture into the ...

Chromosome breaks, often with damaged or missing DNA flanking the break site, are an important threat to genome stability. They are repaired in vertebrates primarily by nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ). NHEJ is unique among the major DNA repair pathways in that a continuous template cannot be used by DNA polymerases ...

We have studied the charge transport properties of self-assembled structures of semisynthetic zinc chlorins (ZnChls) in the solid state by pulse radiolysis time-resolved microwave conductivity (PR-TRMC) measurements. These materials can either form a one-dimensional stacked conformation or a tubular structure, depending on the exact molecular structure of the ZnChls. We ...

Accurate classification of soft tissue vascular anomalies is critical since treatment options and morbidity differ significantly for the various groups of vascular anomalies (VA). A classification system introduced by Mulliken and Glowacki in 1982 explained the biology of VA, thus resulting in improved management and communication between different disciplines taking ...

Recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) is the most common cause of laryngeal hemiplegia in horses and causes neurogenic atrophy of the intrinsic laryngeal muscles, including the cricoarytenoideus lateralis muscle. Recurrent laryngeal neuropathy results in paresis to paralysis of the vocal fold and arytenoid cartilage, which limits performance through respiratory compromise. Ultrasound ...

Background aims. Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is being used increasingly to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GvHD); however, its impact on immune reconstitution is relatively unknown. We (i) studied immune reconstitution after ATG-conditioned hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), (ii) determined the factors influencing the reconstitution, and (iii) compared it with non-ATG-conditioned HCT. Methods. Immune ...

OBJECTIVE.: To assess retrospectively the accuracy of core needle biopsy in diagnosing papillary breast lesions and evaluate the prediction of malignant papillary lesions based on sonographic features. METHODS.: Review of 130 papillary lesions diagnosed on core needle biopsy (2002-2008) in 110 patients. The biopsy results were compared with final surgical ...

BACKGROUND: Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) has been recommended as a routine procedure during intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN). However, many surgeons have been discouraged from performing VNS because of the need for opening the carotid sheath. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility ...