Increases in multimorbidity and obesity have been noted in HIV-infected populations in the current treatment era. Patterns of multimorbid disease clustering and the impact of obesity on multimorbidity are understudied in this population. We examined obesity and multimorbidity patterns among 1844 HIV-infected patients in the UAB 1917 Clinic. Exploratory factor ...

HIV-infected persons have substantially higher risk of kidney failure than persons without HIV, but serum creatinine levels are insensitive for detecting declining kidney function. We hypothesized that urine markers of kidney injury would be associated with declining kidney function among HIV-infected women. In the Women's Interagency HIV Study, we measured ...

To study the relationship between cherry intake and the risk of recurrent gout attacks among individuals with gout. We conducted a case-crossover study to examine the associations of a set of putative risk factors with recurrent gout attacks. Individuals with gout were prospectively recruited and followed up online for 1 ...

RNA interference (RNAi) has been a landmark discovery in science. A typical application is to knock down the expression of endogenous genes by delivering small interfering RNA (siRNA) into cells triggering the degradation of complementary mRNA. However, RNAi can also be exploited the other way round: making use of the ...

: Delivery system research to identify how best to organize, finance, and implement health improvement strategies has focused heavily on clinical practice settings, with relatively little attention paid to public health settings-where research is made more difficult by wide heterogeneity in settings and limited sources of existing data and measures. ...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is an aggressive cancer that interacts with stromal cells to produce a highly inflammatory tumor microenvironment that promotes tumor growth and invasiveness. The precise interplay between tumor and stroma remains poorly understood. TLRs mediate interactions between environmental stimuli and innate immunity and trigger proinflammatory signaling cascades. Our ...

: To examine the level of involvement by local health departments (LHDs) in practice-based research (PBR) activities, and determine factors associated with variation in such involvement. : A total of 625 LHDs in a nationally representative stratified random sample of LHDs were administered questions about their participation in PBR activities ...

: The North Carolina Division of Public Health established an innovative program in 2003 that placed public health epidemiologists (PHEs) in hospitals around the state to improve communication between hospitals and local public health departments (LHDs) and bolster public health surveillance and response. : To use social network analysis to ...

More than a decade has passed since a conceptual framework was introduced to guide public health services and systems research (PHSSR) and elucidate the relationships associated with system performance. Since then, research has primarily focused on performance, standards, and key processes, with less emphasis on identification of measures or methods. ...

: Quality improvement (QI) methods have been used for almost a decade in public health departments to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Although results are rapidly accumulating, the evidence for the science of improvement is shallow and limited. To advance the use and effectiveness of QI in public health, it is ...

: To assess variability in investigation, prevention, and control of communicable diseases of public health significance among Washington State local health jurisdictions. : Online survey conducted from December 2010 to January 2011. : Washington State local health jurisdictions. : Local health officers in the 35 local health jurisdictions in Washington ...

Cancer stem cell behavior is thought to be largely determined by intrinsic properties and by regulatory signals provided by the microenvironment. Myelofibrosis (MF) is characterized by hematopoiesis occurring not only in the marrow but also in extramedullary sites such as the spleen. In order to study the effects of these ...

: Local health departments are increasingly challenged to meet emerging health problems at the same time that they are being challenged with dwindling resources and the demands of accreditation. : To assess the capacity of Multicounty health districts to serve as "Quality Improvement Collaboratives" and support local health departments to ...

Alveolar capillary dysplasia (ACD) is a congenital, lethal disorder of the pulmonary vasculature. Phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10 (Pten) encodes a lipid phosphatase controlling key cellular functions, including stem/progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation; however, the role of PTEN in mesodermal lung cell lineage formation remains unexamined. To ...

Distinct human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allele and haplotype distributions occur in the northern and southern Han populations of China. However, different ethnic groups in China show limited regional distributions for many HLA alleles and haplotypes. Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful to study the differences in HLA allele and haplotype ...

There is a growing recognition that the US public health system should strive for efficiency-that it should determine the optimal ways to utilize limited resources to improve and protect public health. The field of public health finance research is a critical part of efforts to understand the most efficient ways ...

The objectives of this study were to examine the feasibility of using glucose oxidase (GOx) dispersed in a silica matrix for glucose monitoring in whole blood, and then to assess whether the flexibility of silica sol-gel chemistry could be exploited to enhance glucose sensor performance and stability. Silica-dispersed GOx was ...

: Resource sharing, arrangements between local health departments (LHDs) for joint programs or to share staff, is a growing occurrence. The post-9/11 influx of federal funding and new public health preparedness responsibilities dramatically increased the occurrence of these inter-LHD relationships, and several states have pursed more intrastate collaboration. This article ...

: To describe the composition and duties of local boards of health (LBOHs). : An online and written survey was utilized for data collection. The survey included demographics, roles and responsibilities, orientation and training, and concerns and needs of LBOHs. : This article seeks to expand what limited information we ...

: This study examined jurisdictional, organizational, and structural characteristics associated with capacity to deliver 10 essential public health services (EPHS) in Massachusetts, a state where a majority of local public health departments serve small municipalities. : A survey was administered to local health directors or board of health chairs. : ...

A genetic variant in PNPLA3 (PNPLA3(I148M)), a triacylglycerol (TAG) hydrolase, is a major risk factor for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); however, the mechanism underlying this association is not known. To develop an animal model of PNPLA3-induced fatty liver disease, we generated transgenic mice that overexpress similar amounts of wild-type ...

Surface-associated swarming motility is implicated in enhanced bacterial spreading and virulence, hence it follows that anti-swarming effectors could have clinical benefits. When investigating potential applications of anti-swarming materials it is important to consider whether the lack of swarming corresponds with an enhanced sessile biofilm lifestyle and resistance to antibiotics. In ...

: To determine how a health officials' advice network might contribute to a high-performing public health systems by facilitating diffusion of innovation and best practices. : A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data obtained from the National Association of County and City Health Officials 2010 Profile of local health departments (LHDs) ...

Primozic J., Perinetti G., Zhurov A., Richmond S., Ovsenik M. Assessment of facial asymmetry in growing subjects with a three-dimensional laser scanning system Orthod Craniofac Res 2012;15:237-244. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S STRUCTURED ABSTRACT: Authors -  Primozic J, Perinetti G, Zhurov A, Richmond S, Ovsenik M Objectives -  To evaluate ...

: Studies have reported a relationship between the organization of public health services and variability in public health practice at the local and state levels. A national research agenda has prioritized practice-based research to understand pathways that lead to this variation and examine the impact of these differences on outcomes. ...

Kang Y. H., Kim B. C., Park K. R., Yon J. Y., Kim H. J., Tak H. J., Piao Z., Kim M. K., Lee S. H. Visual pathway-related horizontal reference plane for three-dimensional craniofacial analysis Orthod Craniofac Res 2012;15:245-254. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S STRUCTURED ABSTRACT: Authors -  Kang ...

The native capacity of adult skeletal muscles to regenerate is vital to the recovery from physical injuries and dystrophic diseases. Currently, the development of therapeutic interventions has been hindered by the complex regulatory network underlying the process of muscle regeneration. Using a mouse model of skeletal muscle regeneration after injury, ...

The importance of law in the organization and operation of public health systems has long been a matter of interest to public health lawyers and practitioners, but empirical research on law as a factor in health system performance has been limited in quantity and sophistication. The emergence of Public Health ...

As a part of the Public Health Activities and Service Tracking study and in collaboration with partners in 2 Public Health Practice-Based Research Network states, we examined relationships between local health department (LHD) maternal and child health (MCH) expenditures and local needs. We used a multivariate pooled time-series design to ...

Although all international guidelines state that there is no indication to perform a faecal occult blood test (FOBT) in symptomatic patients, we believe the test is frequently used as a diagnostic test. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the current guidelines for FOBT use are being followed ...

: Public health practitioners and researchers often refer to state public health systems as being centralized, decentralized, shared, or mixed. These categories refer to governance of the local public health units within the state and whether they operate under the authority of the state government, local government, shared state and ...

The objective of this article was to describe factors that contribute to successful translation of science into evidence-based practices and their implementation in public health practice agencies, based on a review of the literature and evidence from a series of case studies. The case studies involved structured interviews with key ...

Future generations of upper limb prosthesis will have dexterous hand with individual fingers and will be controlled directly by neural signals. Neurons from the primary motor (M1) cortex code for finger movements and provide the source for neural control of dexterous prosthesis. Each neuron's activation can be quantified by the ...

: This study assessed the workforce capacity of Nebraska Local Health Departments (LHDs) from the perspective of public health programmatic areas. DESIGN AND OUTCOMES MEASURES:: We conducted a mail survey of 21 LHD directors in Nebraska and collected the information on LHD workforce capacity, training, and competency by public health ...

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DbCM), which consists of cardiac hypertrophy and failure in the absence of traditional risk factors, is a major contributor to increased heart failure risk in type 2 diabetes patients. In rodent models of DbCM, cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction have been shown to depend upon saturated fatty acid (SFA) ...

Hashimoto disease (HD) is an autoimmune thyroid disease resulting from complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene has been established to be involved in the susceptibility to HD. We aim to investigate the associations between HLA-B alleles and Han Chinese children with HD by ...

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is the second most common primary malignancy in the liver. ICC has been classified as a malignant tumor arising from cholangiocytes; however, the co-occurrence of ICC and viral hepatitis suggests that ICC originates in hepatocytes. In order to determine the cellular origin of ICC, we used a ...

Block copolymer micelles (BCMs) were prepared from amphiphilic diblock copolymers of poly(n-butyl acrylate) and poly(acrylic acid) partially modified with 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate. Radical polymerization of acrylamide in the presence of micellar crosslinkers gave rise to elastomeric hydrogels (BCM-PAAm) whose mechanical properties can be tuned by varying the BCM composition. Transmission electron ...

The neurogenic niche within the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus is a source of new neurons throughout life. Interestingly, SGZ proliferative capacity is regulated by both physiological and pathophysiological conditions. One outstanding question involves the molecular mechanisms that regulate both basal and inducible adult neurogenesis. Here, we examined ...

We explored the inhibition mode of group IIA secreted phospholipase A(2) (GIIA sPLA(2)) selective inhibitors and tested their ability to inhibit GIIA sPLA(2) activity as chemical conjugates with hyaluronic acid (HA). Analogues of a benzo-fused indole sPLA(2) inhibitor were developed in which the carboxylate group on the inhibitor scaffold, which ...

Adenylyl cyclase type 5 knockout mice (AC5 KO) live longer and are stress resistant, similar to calorie restriction (CR). AC5 KO mice eat more, but actually weigh less and accumulate less fat compared with WT mice. CR applied to AC5 KO results in rapid decrease in body weight, metabolic deterioration, ...

In a fraction of patients aged ≥90 years, less-invasive transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has been considered a therapeutic option for aortic stenosis under careful clinical screening. However, the safety and effectiveness using TAVI in such a population has not been fully elucidated. The aim of the present study was ...

β-adrenoceptors are the common pharmacological targets for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and asthma. Genetic modifications of β-adrenergic system in engineered mice affect their lifespan. Here, we tested whether genes encoding for key components of the β-adrenergic signaling pathway are associated with human longevity. We performed a 10-year follow-up study ...

KaiA protein that stimulates KaiC phosphorylation in the cyanobacterial circadian clock was recently shown to be destabilized by dibromothymoquinone (DBMIB), thus revealing KaiA as a sensor of the plastoquinone (PQ) redox state and suggesting an indirect control of the clock by light through PQ redox changes. Here we show using ...

Recent advances in peptide-based (bottom-up) quantitative proteomics and bioinformatics have opened unprecedented opportunities for extensive investigation of cellular proteomes and their dynamics. Here we discuss two approaches currently used to investigate the global dynamics of phosphorylation based on the isolation of phosphorylated proteins or peptides. We evaluate the accuracy of ...

We sought to evaluate the risk of intrauterine fetal death (IUFD) in small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses. We analyzed a retrospective cohort of all births in the United States in 2005, as recorded in a national database. We calculated the risk of IUFD within 3 sets of SGA threshold categories as well ...

We present a novel approach to tackle the most common drawback of using surface plasmon resonance for analyte screening in complex biological matrices - the nonspecific binding to the sensor chip surface. By using a perforated membrane supported by a polymeric gel structure at the evanescent wave penetration depth, we ...

As loss of KIT frequently occurs in melanoma progression, we hypothesized that KIT is implicated in predisposition to melanoma (MM). Thus, we sequenced the KIT coding region in 112 familial MM cases and 143 matched controls and genotyped Tag SNPs in 2 cohorts of melanoma patients and matched controls. Five ...

Photosensitivity to UVB is a prominent feature of a small number of congenital skin disorders. In addition UVB may also contribute to the action spectrum of a number of acquired photosensitivity syndromes. The gene mutations underlying the genetically inherited disorders have largely been identified and have provided insights into DNA ...

Summary Ipilimumab blocks cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen (CTLA)-4, potentiating the antimelanoma T-cell host response. Ipilimumab has been shown to improve overall survival in patients with previously treated metastatic melanoma. CTLA-4 antibodies generate immune responses to the melanoma-associated antigens Melan-A, NY-ESO-1 and glycoprotein (gp)100 in metastatic melanoma. Digital epiluminescence microscopy (DELM) is ...