Trisomy 21 is associated with hematopoietic abnormalities in the fetal liver, a preleukemic condition termed transient myeloproliferative disorder, and increased incidence of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Human trisomy 21 pluripotent cells of various origins, human embryonic stem (hES), and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, were differentiated in vitro as a model ...

The angiosperm order Malpighiales includes ~16,000 species and constitutes up to 40% of the understory tree diversity in tropical rain forests. Despite remarkable progress in angiosperm systematics during the last 20 y, relationships within Malpighiales remain poorly resolved, possibly owing to its rapid rise during the mid-Cretaceous. Using phylogenomic approaches, ...

Assembly of a spliceosome, catalyzing precursor-messenger RNA splicing, involves multiple RNA-protein remodeling steps, driven by eight conserved DEXD/H-box RNA helicases. The 250-kDa Brr2 enzyme, which is essential for U4/U6 di-small nuclear ribonucleoprotein disruption during spliceosome catalytic activation and for spliceosome disassembly, is the only member of this group that is ...

Myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL)-family genes encode histone lysine methyltransferases that play important roles in epigenetic regulation of gene transcription. MLL genes are frequently mutated in human cancers. Unlike MLL1, MLL2 (also known as ALR/MLL4) and its homolog MLL3 are not well-understood. Specifically, little is known regarding the extent of ...

OBJECTIVES: To establish an experimental platform in Staphylococcus aureus for identifying genetic loci that determine intrinsic antibiotic susceptibility and/or that have the potential to contribute to acquired antibiotic resistance. A near-saturation S. aureus transposon (Tn) library was screened for mutants exhibiting altered susceptibility to the antistaphylococcal agents daptomycin, vancomycin and ...

MOTIVATION: The Brassicaceae family includes the most important plant model Arabidopsis thaliana and many cruciferous vegetable crops. A number of close relatives of Arabidopsis and economically important Brassica species are being sequenced with whole-genome shotgun sequencing technologies. However, de novo assembly of full chromosomes is difficult, since many non-model Brassicaceae ...

BACKGROUND: /st>Intraoperative nerve lesions can lead to chronic postoperative pain. There are conflicting data as to whether or not anaesthetics administered intraoperatively are beneficial. We investigated if remifentanil administered at the time of nerve injury was able to attenuate neuropathic hypersensitivity. METHODS: /st>Rats were anaesthetized with isoflurane, endotracheally intubated, and ...

A best evidence topic was written in cardiothoracic surgery based on a structured protocol. The question addressed was whether ultrasound mapping of the long saphenous vein (LSV) might reduce leg wound complications by reducing unnecessary leg incisions due to poor quality veins. Altogether, 32 abstracts were identified from the search, ...

MOTIVATION: Metabolic engineering algorithms provide means to optimise a biological process leading to the improvement of a biotechnological interesting molecule. Therefore, it is important to understand how to act in a metabolic pathway in order to have the best results in terms of productions. In this work, we present a ...

For decades the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Shanghai has been increasing. Despite the long-time efforts aimed at MSW management (MSWM), the disposal of MSW achieves poor performance. Thus, a MSW minimisation plan for Shanghai was proposed in December 2010. In this study, direct face-to-face interviews and a ...

BACKGROUND: /st>Current thinking about patient safety emphasizes the relationship between organizational factors, that is, latent risk factors (LRFs) and patient safety. This study explores the influence of the operating theatre (OT), intensive care unit (ICU), and disciplines on ratings of LRFs. If we have an understanding of the contribution made ...

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase from Aeromonas caviae FA440 (PhaCAc, BAA21815) shows a wide range of substrate specificity and synthesizes poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-(R)-3-hydroxyhexanoate] (P(3HB-co-3HHx)) with a molecular weight of over 105 Da. P(3HB-co-3HHx) possesses practical mechanical and thermal properties as a bioplastic. PhaCAc is therefore one of the most valuable biocatalysts for PHA production. ...

MOTIVATION: Current methods in diagnostic microbiology typically focus on the detection of a single genomic locus or protein in a candidate agent. The presence of the entire microbe is then inferred from this isolated result. Problematically, the presence of recombination in microbial genomes would go undetected unless other genomic loci ...

MOTIVATION: It becomes widely accepted that human cancer is a disease involving dynamic changes in the genome and that the missense mutations constitute the bulk of human genetic variations. A multitude of computational algorithms, especially the machine learning-based ones, have consequently been proposed to distinguish missense changes that contribute to ...

BackgroundA geriatric screening tool would be valuable to identify elderly cancer patients who might benefit from a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). This study evaluated the accuracy of the cardiovascular health study (CHS) instrument in predicting abnormality in CGA. The vulnerable elders' survey-13 (VES-13) was also evaluated.Patients and methodsPatients aged ≥70 ...

Traffic-related air pollution is recognized as an important contributor to health problems. Epidemiologic analyses suggest that prenatal exposure to traffic-related air pollutants may be associated with adverse birth outcomes; however, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that the relation is causal. The Study of Air Pollution, Genetics and Early Life ...

Measurement invariance of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) across gender, race, and ethnic groups was evaluated in a large sample of college students, using pooled data from 11 universities from diverse geographical regions in the United States (N = 7,369). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the fit ...

SUMMARY: Frozen Robust Multiarray Analysis (fRMA) is a singlearray preprocessing algorithm that retains the advantages of multiarray algorithms and removes certain batch-effects by down-weighting probes that have high between-batch residual variance. Here we extend the fRMA algorithm to two new microarray platforms - Affymetrix Human Exon and Gene 1.0 ST ...

It has recently been demonstrated that amphetamine, methadone and tetrahydrocannabinol are detectable in exhaled breath following intake. Exhaled breath, therefore, constitutes a new possible matrix for drugs-of-abuse testing. The present work aims to further explore this possibility by a study on patients treated for acute intoxication with abused drugs.Fifty-nine patients ...

OBJECTIVES: We describe clinical and microbiological features of infections caused by OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (O48KP) in the setting of a prolonged, hospital-wide outbreak detected in January 2011. METHODS: Clinical, demographic and microbiological data of patients with growth of O48KP in clinical specimens were collected until December 2011. PCR was used ...

MOTIVATION: A-to-I RNA editing is an important mechanism which consists of the conversion of specific adenosines into inosines in RNA molecules. Its dysregulation has been associated to several human diseases including cancer. Recent work has demonstrated a role for A-to-I editing in microRNA (miRNA) mediated gene expression regulation. In fact, ...

MOTIVATION: Comparing transcriptomic data with proteomic data to identify protein-coding sequences is a long-standing challenge in molecular biology, one exacerbated by the increasing size of high-throughput datasets. To address this challenge, and thereby to improve the quality of genome annotation and understanding of genome biology, we have developed an integrated ...

A 71-year old male who underwent total aortic arch replacement using a newly developed uncoated vascular prosthesis (Triplex®) developed postoperative mediastinitis due to a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus infection. The Triplex® vascular prosthesis has a unique three-layer structure with a non-porous elastomer middle layer material and has several advantages over more traditional ...

Stemona curtisii Hook. F. (Family Stemonaceae), a prominent species distributed in the south and southwest of Thailand, has widely been used as a natural pesticide and as treatment for head lice and skin diseases. This study developed a thin-layer chromatography (TLC)-densitometric method for the simultaneous quantification of major components-stemocurtisine, stemocurtisinol ...

MOTIVATION: The analysis of differentially expressed gene sets became a routine in the analyses of gene expression data. There is a multitude of tests available, ranging from aggregation tests that summarize gene-level statistics for a gene set to true multivariate tests, accounting for intergene correlations. Most of them detect complex ...

OBJECTIVES: Integrin-linked kinase (ILK) is an intracellular protein implicated in chronic inflammation and neoplastic transformation. In a recently accomplished pilot study, we showed that ILK can be detected in the serum of patients with benign and malignant chest diseases, including malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Interestingly, average serum ILK concentrations were ...

Radon is a known cause of human lung cancer. Previously, the authors observed a significant positive association between mean county-level residential radon concentrations and lung cancer mortality in the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II), a large prospective study of nearly 1.2 million participants recruited in 1982 by the American Cancer ...

SUMMARY: MesoRD is a tool for simulating stochastic reaction-diffusion systems as modeled by the reaction diffusion master equation. The simulated systems are defined in the Systems Biology Markup Language with additions to define compartment geometries. MesoRD 1.0 supports scale-dependent reaction rate constants and reactions between reactants in neighbouring subvolumes. These ...

SUMMARY: ncPRO-seq (Non-Coding RNA PROfiling in sRNA-seq) is a stand-alone, comprehensive and flexible ncRNA analysis pipeline. It can interrogate and perform detailed profiling analysis on small RNAs derived from annotated non-coding regions in miRBase, Rfam and RepeatMasker, as well as specific regions defined by users. The ncPRO-seq pipeline performs both ...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the obstetric performance of a selected population of twin pregnancies, comparing reduced vs. nonreduced twin pregnancies after the successful completion of the 12th week. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Outpatient fertility center. PATIENT(S): A cohort of 464 twin pregnancies including both ovulation induction and assisted reproductive technology ...

BACKGROUND: Despite their overwhelming efficacy, safety-engineered sharp devices (SESDs) cause a residual fraction of injuries. Although the fraction of injuries from SESDs is less than that reported for nonsafety devices, it remains a "preventable fraction" and is a sizable target for further advances. METHODS: A retrospective review of 3,297 percutaneous ...

Abstract Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi infection, is ranked as the most serious parasitic disease in Latin America and has huge potential to become a worldwide problem, due to increasing migration, and international tourism, as well as infectant transfer by blood contact and transfusion, intrauterine transfer, and organ transplantation. ...

BACKGROUND: Arguments against biliary drainage before pancreatoduodenectomy have been gaining momentum recently. The benefits of biliary drainage before hepatobiliary resection, ie, combined liver and extrahepatic bile duct resection, however, are still debatable. OBJECTIVE: To review the outcomes of patients who underwent hepatobiliary resection, with special attention to preoperative biliary drainage, ...

Abstract Background: Surface neutrophil CD64 expression is upregulated in patients with bacterial infection. As it was suggested that the CD64 index could be used to detect sepsis in hospitalized patients, we questioned whether the CD64 index could discriminate between septic patients and postoperative surgical patients, defined as systemic inflammatory response ...

BACKGROUND: Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy (RYHJ) is the most well-accepted treatment for most post-cholecystectomy bile duct injuries (BDI). RYHJ failure is a complex situation that requires expert planning and the possibility of using a combination of operative, radiologic, and endoscopic techniques. The aim of this study was to report our experience with ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the number and sequence of preceding miscarriages and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Recurrent miscarriage (RM) clinic. PATIENT(S): Women who attended the RM clinic from 1988 to 2006. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Number, type, and sequence of previous pregnancies were compared ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate prevalence, association, and clearance of human papillomavirus (HPV) and antisperm antibodies (ASAs) in infected semen samples from infertile patients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional clinical study. SETTING: Andrology and microbiology sections at a university hospital. PATIENT(S): Three groups of subjects: 61 infertile patients with HPV semen infection, 104 noninfected infertile ...

Malaria parasites have been suggested to alter the behavior of mosquito vectors to increase the likelihood of transmission. Some empirical evidence supports this hypothesis, yet the role of manipulation is ignored in most epidemiological models, and behavioral differences between infected and uninfected females are not considered in the development or ...

Abstract Background: Cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs) are among important inflammatory mediators in asthma pathogenesis. In this study, we aimed to determine leukotriene D4 (LTD4) and leukotriene E4 (LTE4) levels in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in asthmatics and to evaluate the effect of smoking upon CysLTs levels and to speculate the importance ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine differential expression of G-protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) in uterine leiomyoma and its matched myometrium. DESIGN: GPR30 expression examined in both tissues and cultured cells. SETTING: Research laboratories. PATIENT(S): Women 35 to 50 years old with uterine leiomyomas. INTERVENTION(S): Hysterectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): GPR30 expression profile. RESULT(S): Using ...

Abstract Clinical samples are the cornerstone in all aspects related to in vitro diagnostic testing. They are particularly valuable in the process of establishing/validating metrological traceability, because they eliminate commutability issues potentially associated with artificial calibrators. Therefore, they are essential for IFCC standardization projects. However, sourcing clinical specimens is particularly ...

Failure of the endometrium to achieve receptivity results in infertility, and it is also a rate-limiting step in in vitro fertilization (IVF) success. The microenvironments provided by the endometrium during the receptive phase and that support implantation are highly complex and constantly changing as implantation progresses. Although a number of gene ...

The increasing incidence of breast cancer is paralleled by an increasing demand for post-mastectomy breast reconstruction. At the time of breast reconstruction routine submission of mastectomy scars has been considered appropriate clinical practice to ensure that no residual cancer exists. However, this practice has been challenged by some and has ...

AIM: To analyse the morphological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of borderline ovarian tumours (BOT) and to evaluate whether MRI can be used to distinguish serous from mucinous subtypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study of 72 patients who underwent BOT resection was undertaken. MRI images were reviewed blindly by ...

Stomata are generated via asymmetric cell division in both dicots and monocots. Intrinsic or extrinsic polarity cues are perceived and acted upon to generate mother cell polarity and determine asymmetric division planes. Arabidopsis employs both intrinsic and extrinsic cues to orient a variable series of asymmetric stomatal divisions, using novel ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare complication rates and short-term outcomes of laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy among obese and non-obese women. METHODS: A retrospective multicenter study of 39 obese women and 111 non-obese women was conducted. Obesity was defined as a body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of ...

OBJECTIVE: Previously we reported anterior decompression of C1-2 synovial cysts and subsequent posterior fusion in a large series. Although the surgical morbidity and mortality were acceptable, prior reports of stand alone C1-2 fusion with resolution of cyst compression presumptively by correction of joint instability were intriguing and obviated the need ...

BACKGROUND: In Sweden, a mass vaccination campaign against the influenza A(H1N1) 2009 resulted in 60% vaccination coverage. However, many countries had difficulty in motivating citizens to be vaccinated. To be prepared for future vaccination campaigns, it is important to understand people's reasons for not taking the vaccination. OBJECTIVE: The aim ...

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are released from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato T1 (Pst T1) during their normal growth. These extracellular compartments are comprised of a complete set of biological macromolecules that includes proteins, lipids, lipopolysaccharides etc. It is evident from proteomics analyses the OMVs of Pst T1 contain membrane- and ...

ABSTRACT: Study Design. Retrospective reviewObjective. To determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of cell saver for single-level posterior lumbar decompression and fusion (PLDF).Summary of Background Data. Intraoperative cell salvage is used during surgery to reduce the need for perioperative allogeneic blood transfusion. While the use of cell saver may be beneficial in ...