Research has demonstrated ambiguity about the definition of hooking up among college students. The current research examined whether there were multiple definitions of hooking up among college students and how different definitions might be associated with the participant's own hooking up behavior and normative perceptions of peer hooking up behavior. ...

Background: Outcome measurement in child and adolescent mental health services in New Zealand became mandatory in 2005 and little is known about how this is perceived by service users.Aims: This study aimed to ascertain what service users think about routine outcome measurement in child and adolescent mental health services.Method: Nine ...

Background. The influence of endoscopic video camera (VC) image quality on surgical performance has not been studied. Flexible endoscopes are used as substitutes for laparoscopes in natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), but their optics are originally designed for intralumenal use. Manipulable wired or wireless independent VCs might offer advantages ...

Purpose: Though increased thyroid perfusion assessed by colour-coded Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) is characteristic of Graves' disease (GD), sometimes perfusion assessment by CDUS is not possible. In these cases, arterial spin labelling (ASL), a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique allowing non-invasive thyroid perfusion quantification, may have additional diagnostic value. We ...

Over the past few years biodegradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) using different microorganisms has been investigated by several researchers. In this review article, an attempt has been made to present a critical summary of the recent results related to two major processes - reductive dechlorination and aerobic co-metabolism used for TCE ...

1,3-Dimethylamylamine (DMAA) is an ingredient in a number of weight loss and exercise performance enhancing products. However, information on the safety of DMAA-containing products is limited. Exposures to DMAA-containing products reported to Texas poison centers during 2010-2011 were identified and selected factors were examined. A total of 56 exposures were ...

AFM force measurements have been performed to study the influence of the pH value and salt concentration on the interactions between poly(2-vinyl pyridine) brushes and microsized silica spheres with focus on attractive and adhesion forces. It was found that the interaction was composed of a repulsive component reflecting the conformation ...

Translations with unnatural amino acids (AAs) are generally inefficient and kinetic studies of their incorporations from tRNAs are few. Here, the incorporations of small and large, non-N-alkylated, unnatural L-AAs into dipeptides were compared with natural amino acids using quench-flow techniques. Surprisingly, all incorporations occurred in two phases: fast then slow, ...

Globally, estimated costs to manage (i.e., remediate and monitor) contaminated sediments are in the billions of U.S. dollars. Biologically based approaches for assessing the contaminated sediments which pose the greatest ecological risk range from toxicity testing to benthic community analysis. In addition, chemically based sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) provide a ...

A molecular understanding of excipient effects on the interrelationship(s) between dynamics and conformational stability of proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), can be important for their pharmaceutical development. The current study examines stabilizing and destabilizing effects of excipients on the conformational stability and local dynamics of distinct solvent-exposed regions within ...

BACKGROUND: The 'jumper's knee paradox', where symptomatic athletes appear to perform better in a counter movement jump (CMJ) compared to asymptomatic controls in previous case-control studies is not fully understood. AIM: The aim was to examine the relationship between jumping ability and change of jumping ability as potential risk factors ...

MOTIVATION: Gene selection for cancer classification is one of the most important topics in the biomedical field. However, microarray data poses a severe challenge for computational techniques. We need dimension reduction techniques that identify a small set of genes to achieve better learning performance. From the perspective of machine learning, ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Diva (death inducer binding to vBcl-2 and Apaf-1)/BclB is a Bcl-2 family member, which is known for its function in apoptosis. Diva/BclB has been shown to interact with NDPKB/Nm23H2, which is involved in cellular differentiation. Thus far, there has been no direct evidence of Diva/BclB having a role ...

  Cronobacter are opportunistic food-borne pathogens associated with meningitis, sepsis, and necrotizing enterocolitis. Little attempt has focused on detection of viable cell of Cronobacter spp. in dry aquatic products, which were frequently used for raw materials of infant foods due to high nutrition. In this paper, one-step reverse transcription polymerase ...

BACKGROUND: -We evaluated the viability of I(Kur) as a target for maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with a history of atrial fibrillation through the testing of MK-0448, a novel I(Kur) inhibitor. METHODS AND RESULTS: -In vitro MK-0448 studies demonstrated strong inhibition of I(Kur) with minimal off-target activity. In vivo ...

Droplet methods have been successfully applied in DNA hybridization analysis and protein-protein interaction. Existing assay methods implemented in droplet platforms are severely limited by expensive and high-maintenance equipment. As a convenient detection method, colorimetry provides a new path for microscale assay since it can enhance assay efficiency and simplify the ...

Unique DNA-promoted Pd nanocrystals on carbon nanotubes (Pd/DNA-CNTs) are synthesized for the first time, in which through its regularly arranged PO(4) (3-) groups on the sugar-phosphate backbone, DNA directs the growth of ultrasmall Pd nanocrytals with an average size of 3.4 nm uniformly distributed on CNTs. The Pd/DNA-CNT catalyst shows much ...

In this study, the role of lipoteichoic acid (LTA) anchors in the activation of the innate immune response was investigated through the chemical synthesis of a series of LTA derivatives and the determination of their ability to induce NO production in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM). To this end, an efficient ...

The formation of a novel surface reconstruction upon Co deposition on freshly cleaved Ge(111)2 × 1 surfaces is studied by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at 4.5 K. Previously we demonstrated that at this low substrate temperature the deposited Co atoms remain immobile after they become embedded underneath the Ge(111)2 × 1 surface. We ...

Macrovesicular steatosis in greater than 30% of hepatocytes is a significant risk factor for primary graft nonfunction due to increased sensitivity to ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. The growing prevalence of hepatic steatosis due to the obesity epidemic, in conjunction with an aging population, may negatively impact the availability of suitable ...

Purposes:(a) To measure the urinary excretion of antineoplastic drugs of three patients during 48 h after the administration of cyclophosphamide (two patients) and 5-fluorouracil (one patient). (b) To evaluate environmental contamination with antineoplastic drugs via excreta of patients in the home setting. (c) To evaluate exposure of family members to antineoplastic ...

BACKGROUND: The increasing availability of clinical data from electronic medical records (EMRs) has created opportunities for secondary uses of health information. When used in machine learning classification, many data features must first be transformed by discretization. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate six discretization strategies, both supervised and unsupervised, using EMR data. MATERIALS ...

A C-H arylation with aryl chloride is made viable through a transition-metal-free approach. In the presence of a simple diol associating with KOt-Bu, various phenanthridine derivatives can be conveniently accessed. In particular, only 10 mol % of simple and inexpensive ethylene glycol is required for this protocol. These results represent ...

The eukaryotic 60 S-ribosomal stalk consists of P0, P1, and P2 proteins, which associate in a pentameric structure (P1(2)-P0-P2(2)). The Plasmodium falciparum protein P2 (PfP2) appears to play nonribosomal roles. It gets exported to the infected erythrocyte (IE) surface at 30 h post-merozoite invasion (PMI), concomitant with extensive oligomerization. Here ...

  The polysaccharides, named puerh tea polysaccharides (PTPS), were isolated from puerh tea. Physicochemical characteristics, hypoglycemic and antioxidant effects of PTPS in alloxan-induced diabetic mice were investigated. PTPS was found to be a kind of acid heteropolysaccharides conjugate, but the physicochemical characteristics of which were different from the polysaccharides from ...

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of ubiquinone (CoQ10) on heart tissue and erythrocytes in acute organophosphate poisoning (AOP). A total of 20 rabbits were divided into three groups: sham (n = 8), pralidoxime (PAM) + atropine (n = 6), and CoQ10 + PAM + atropine (n = 6). Blood samples were taken from each test subject to ...

This project implemented and evaluated two models of care for terminally ill people living alone at home: installing personal alarms (PA) and providing extra care aide (CA) support. The primary aim was to assess the feasibility of using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) approach with this group. A secondary aim ...

Abstract Objectives: Brunner's adenoma is a rare benign tumor of the duodenum. The traditional management option was close follow-up and surgical tumor resection. With the development of endoscopy devices and techniques, endoscopic resection is considered an alternative treatment option. However, whether small lesions require treatment has been controversial. We planned ...

In contrast to molecular rates for neutral mitochondrial sequences, rates for constrained sites (including nonsynonymous sites, D-loop, and RNA) in the mitochondrial genome are known to vary with the time frame used for their estimation. Here we examined this issue for the nuclear genomes using Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) from ...

Reactions of the perfluoroarylboranes RB(C(6)F(5))(2) (R = C(6)F(5), Ph, Cl, OC(6)F(5)) with Me(3)SiCH(N(2)), (C(6)F(5))CH(N(2)) or Ph(2)C(N(2)) yield (C(6)F(5))(2)B(Me(3)SiCH(C(6)F(5))) , (C(6)F(5))B(Me(3)SiCH(C(6)F(5)))(2), (C(6)F(5))B(Me(3)SiCH(C(6)F(5)))(Me(3)SiCH(C(6)H(5))) , (C(6)F(5))(2)B(CH(C(6)F(5))(2)) , ClB(C(6)F(5))(Ph(2)C(C(6)F(5))) and (C(6)F(5)O)B(C(6)F(5))(Me(3)SiCH(C(6)F(5))) as a result of single or double insertion of a Me(3)SiCH, C(6)F(5)CH or Ph(2)C fragment into a B-C bond of the respective borane. ...

Nonsyndromic orofacial clefts are common birth defects whose etiology is influenced by complex genetic and environmental factors and gene-environment interactions. Although these risk factors are not yet fully elucidated, it is known that alterations in transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) signaling can cause craniofacial abnormalities, including cleft palate, in mammals. To ...

Neuroendocrine (NE) prostate tumors and neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) in prostatic adenocarcinomas have been associated with poor prognosis. In this study, we used the TRAMP mouse model that develops NE prostate tumors to identify key factors that can lead to NED. We have previously reported that NE tumors express the forkhead ...

OBJECTIVES: The Prometra® Programmable Pump System (Flowonix Medical, Inc., Mt. Olive, NJ, USA) is designed for continuous intrathecal administration of morphine sulfate to treat chronic intractable pain. As a follow-up to a previous report on acute six-month data, this study evaluated the efficacy of treatment at one year and the ...

Reconstruction of large soft tissue defects of the back is a challenging problem. Large defects of the back were reconstructed with multiple random pattern or local pedicled muscle (and skin graft) or musculocutaneous flaps. The clinical use of perforator flaps has demonstrated that harvesting of flaps on a single perforator ...

This manuscript reports a shape-controlled synthesis of colloidal superparticles from iron-oxide nanocubes. Our results show that the formation of superparticles is under thermodynamic control and their shape is determined by Gibbs free energy minimization. The resulting superparticles adopted a simple cubic superlattice structure, and their shape can be tuned between ...

BACKGROUND: High efficacy of intrathecal methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) with lidocaine has been reported in a large patient group suffering from intractable postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Because the treatment effect was never independently confirmed and there are ongoing safety concerns, intrathecal MPA did not become standard care for intractable PHN. We report ...

BACKGROUND: Ascertainment of potential subjects has been a longstanding problem in clinical research. Various methods have been proposed, including using data in electronic health records. However, these methods typically suffer from scaling effects-some methods work well for large cohorts; others work for small cohorts only. OBJECTIVE: We propose a method ...

ABSTRACT Background: Striae distensae (striae alba) is a challenging cosmetic problem for which various treatment modalities have been applied. However, the treatment of striae distensae has not been satisfactory. Objectives: This study was done to evaluate the effectiveness and the safety of enhanced penetration of platelet rich plasma with ultrasound ...

One of the most widely used tasks in the spatial memory literature is the judgement of relative direction (JRD) test. The present investigation examined the hypothesis that standard JRD task demands bias spatial recall. In two experiments, participants' recall of small-scale layouts as measured by standard JRD tests (in which ...

AIMS: In patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), the P-wave signal-averaged electrocardiogram often demonstrates a low-amplitude potential at the terminal part of filtered P-wave (atrial late potential: A(LP)), which would originate from delayed pulmonary vein (PV) potentials. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of PV isolation ...

  Ten promising jujubes were analyzed for textural characteristic (hardness), antioxidant activity, sugar, organic acid, and phenolic profiles. Total phenolic content (TP) measured by Folin-Ciocalteu method ranged from 275.6 to 541.8 mg of gallic acid equivalents per 100 g fresh weight (mg GAE/100 g FW). Four sugars (rhamnose, fructose, sucrose, ...

Molecular genetic assays for the detection of the JAK2 V617F (c.1849G>T) and other pathogenetic mutations within JAK2 exon 12 and MPL exon 10 are part of the routine diagnostic workup for patients presenting with erythrocytosis, thrombocytosis or otherwise suspected to have a myeloproliferative neoplasm. A wide choice of techniques are ...

β-Lactams with contiguous tetra- and trisubstituted carbon centers were prepared in a highly enantioselective manner through 4-exo-trig cyclization of axially chiral enolates generated from readily available α-amino acids. Use of a weak base (metal carbonate) in a protic solvent (EtOH) is the key to the smooth production of β-lactams. Use ...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Our goal was to assess the impact of personal music players, earphones, and music styles on output, the subject's preferred listening levels, and outline recommendations for the prevention of music-induced hearing loss. STUDY DESIGN: Experimental study. Personal music players' output capabilities and volunteers' preferred output levels were assessed in ...

The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway plays a fundamental role in development and tissue homeostasis, governing cell proliferation and differentiation, as well as cell fate. Hh signaling is mediated by an intricate network of proteins that have positive and negative roles that work in concert to fine-tune signaling output. Using feedback ...

Quantized conductance was observed in a cation-migration-based resistive switching memory cell with a simple metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure using a thin Ta(2)O(5) layer. The observed conductance changes are attributed to the formation and dissolution of a metal filament with an atomic point contact of different integer multiples in the Ta(2)O(5) layer. ...

Background: Predicting which chronic rhinosinusitis patients have nasal obstruction due to reversible mucosal inflammation could prevent unnecessary surgery. Aim: To investigate whether the change in nasal peak inspiratory flow following maximal decongestion (i.e. mucosal reversibility) at first visit predicts the response to topical steroids in chronic rhinosinusitis patients, as measured ...

SUMMARY: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are widely used to investigate the genetic basis of diseases and traits, but they pose many computational challenges. We developed gdsfmt and SNPRelate (R packages for multi-core symmetric multiprocessing computer architectures) to accelerate two key computations on SNP data: principal component analysis (PCA) and relatedness ...

Foster care is a complex setting in which to provide therapeutic interventions due to the high rates of difficulty, poor outcomes and high numbers of professionals and carers involved. This systematic review aims to examine interventions that have been empirically assessed in foster care. Thirty papers describing 20 interventions were ...

Background. The magnetic surgical camera is an emerging technology having the potential to improve visualization without taking up port site space. However, tilting the point of view downward/upward can be done only by constantly applying a pressure on the abdomen. This study aims to test the hypothesis that the novel ...