BACKGROUND: While several studies showed that selenium may prevent prostate cancer (PCa), few studies have evaluated variation in selenoenzyme genes in relation to PCa risk and survival. METHODS: We studied common variants in seven selenoenzymes genes in relation to risk of PCa and PCa-specific mortality (PCSM). In a population-based case-control ...

Under control: A stereocontrolled total synthesis of (+)-UCS1025A, a potent telomerase inhibitor, was achieved. The synthesis features an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction, a tandem Staudinger/aza-Wittig reaction, and stereoselective construction of the hemiaminal moiety facilitated by neighboring-group participation.

Spatial and temporal control of cell growth is central for the morphogenesis of multicellular organisms. For some cell types that undergo extensive post-mitotic cell growth, such as neurons and hair cells, orchestrating the extent of post-mitotic cell growth with development is vital for their physiology and function. Previous studies suggested ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Dengue is a serious arboviral disease currently with no effective antiviral therapy or approved vaccine available. Therefore, finding the effective compound against dengue virus (DENV) replication is very important. Among the natural compounds, bioflavonoids derived mainly from plants are of interest because of their biological and medicinal benefits. ...

Fusing rings: A new synthesis of the bowl-shaped hydrocarbon tribenzotriquinacene is presented. The synthesis allows easy access to ortho-functionalized and C(3) -chiral derivatives that are attractive for supramolecular chemistry and asymmetric catalysis.

Hexagonally ordered mesoporous molybdenum oxycarbide/carbon (MoC/C) nanocomposites were directly accessed by heat treatment of mesostructured poly(butadiene-block-2-vinylpyridine) (PB-b-P2VP) and molybdophosphoric acid. PB-b-P2VP serves as structure-directing agent and as carbon source. The high specific surface area obtained for the nanocomposites renders the materials interesting for potential applications, such as in the catalytic ...

1,2-Diaminobenzene, popularly known as ortho-phenylenediamine (PDA), is found to be a prototype spacer for the deposition of gold nanoparticles on the surfaces of Fe(3) O(4) microspheres. Upon carbonization with PDA, the morphology of the product changes significantly, and the resulting nanocomposites exhibit enhanced magnetism beyond the saturation value of Fe(3) ...

The interest in whole-body vibration (WBV) for the enhancement of neuromuscular performance has received considerable attention. However, scientific evidence supporting the optimal prescription of WBV settings is lacking. This study investigated the acute effect of WBV combining high frequency/high peak-to-peak displacement (HH) or low frequency/low peak-to-peak displacement (LL) vs. sham ...

Easy as π: A stable nonaromatic heteroporphyrin bearing a thienopyrrole moiety has been prepared. The nonaromatic nature of this compound is clearly evident based on UV/Vis absorption, (1) H NMR spectroscopy, and theoretical calculations. Single-crystal X-ray analysis demonstrates that the molecule adopts a planar conformation with clear alternation in the ...

Treatment options for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) are very limited. In other solid tumors, small vaccination trials targeting the anti-apoptotic molecule survivin suggested immunological and clinical benefit in selected patients. Therefore, we investigated whether survivin might be a suitable target for immunotherapy in ACC. Survivin mRNA and protein expression was assessed ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Monitoring treatment patterns is crucial to improving cancer patient care. Our aim was to determine the accuracy of linked routinely collected administrative health data for monitoring colorectal and lung cancer care in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. METHODS: Colorectal and lung cancer cases diagnosed in NSW between 2000 ...

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of self-reported decline in weight, exhaustion, walking difficulty, grip strength and physical activity on development of disabilities in community-dwelling elderly people.Design:A one-year follow-up study.Setting:Participants were recruited via four Dutch general practitioners.Participants:Community-dwelling elderly people aged 70 years or older.Methods:A total of 687 participants received a questionnaire ...

Background: Defining the role of high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell rescue in the therapeutic algorithm of follicular lymphoma remains a major challenge. In contrast with the acknowledged poor outcome associated with cyclophosphamide/total body irradiation conditioning in heavily pretreated patients, the prognostic impact of the number of previous therapy lines ...

Objective:This study examined longitudinal trends in the dispensing of psychotropic medications in Australia from January 2000 to December 2011.Method:Dispensing data for the major classes of psychotropic medications (antidepressants, anxiolytics, sedatives, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications) were obtained from the Drug Utilisation Sub-Committee of the Australian Department ...

Although UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A (UGT1A) plays an important role in preventing bladder cancer initiation by detoxifying carcinogenic compounds, its contribution to bladder cancer progression is poorly understood. We immunohistochemically stained for UGT1A in bladder specimens. UGT1A was positive in 130/145 (90%; 28 [19%] weak, 53 [37%] moderate, and 49 [34%] strong) ...

Tylophorine and analogs are phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids, several of which have been reported to have anticancer, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. However, their function in the immune system remains widely unknown. Transcription factor Foxp3 is critical for the development and function of Treg, which down-regulates the immune system and maintains tolerance to ...

This paper synthesises and discusses results from the 2005 Survey of Student Well-Being, a closed-ended questionnaire administered to students attending general education courses at a major public university in Santiago (n = 484 women, 466 men). The survey included questions on sexual violence (SV) and dating violence (DV), public health problems that ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Methylphenidate (MPH), a psycho-stimulant, is the most widely administered drug for the pharmacological management of patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study attempts to determine whether sustainable improvements occur in neurocognitive function among ADHD patients following 12-month treatment with MPH, at drug-free status. Whether age groups, ...

  The objective of this study was to analyze overall contents of biogenic amines in Miso and thereby evaluate the safety of the food. Through HPLC analysis of 22 different Miso products, it was found that most samples had low biogenic amine contents. However, some samples contained both histamine and ...

Rationale: Metabolomics refers to the comprehensive analysis of metabolites in biological systems and has been employed to study asthmatic patients based on their metabolite profile. We hypothesize that airway allergic asthma would affect metabolism in the lungs, and could be detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) using a combined liquid ...

Background. The treatment of choice in steroid-resistant immune thrombocytopenia is still controversial, due to the recent advent of new drugs (anti-CD20 antibodies and thrombopoietin mimetics) which have encouraged a generalized tendency to delay splenectomy. Consequently, the importance to define the efficacy and safety of splenectomy in the long-term is substantial. ...

Background. Some studies have shown that tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), a drug widely used in highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART), is associated with kidney dysfunction, but the magnitude of the effect and its clinical impact is still being debated. Our objective was to evaluate the association between long-term TDF exposure and ...

Compared to the widely used Cronobacter rpoB-PCR assay, a highly specific multiplexed PCR assay, based on cdgc1, a di-guanylate cyclase gene was designed that identified all of the targeted six species among 305 Cronobacter isolates. This assay will be a valuable tool for identifying suspected Cronobacter isolates from foodborne investigations.

Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a species complex containing >28 cryptic species, some of which are important crop pests worldwide. Like many other sap-sucking insects, whiteflies harbour an obligatory symbiont "Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum" and a number of secondary symbionts. So far, six genera of secondary symbionts have been identified in ...

We performed two parallel systematic reviews and meta-analyses to determine the association between early migration of tibial components and late aseptic revision. One review comprised early migration data from radiostereometric analysis (RSA) studies, while the other focused on revision rates for aseptic loosening from long-term survival studies. Thresholds for acceptable ...

This final rule updates and makes revisions to the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) prospective payment system (PPS) for calendar year (CY) 2013. This rule also sets forth requirements for the ESRD quality incentive program (QIP), including for payment year (PY) 2015 and beyond. In addition, this rule implements changes to ...

AIMS: Systemic complications after cardiac surgery are common in heart failure patients. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms, such as a different local inflammatory response of failing hearts, remain in question. This study examines whether failing hearts respond differently to cardioplegic arrest and reperfusion compared with non-failing hearts (controls). METHODS AND RESULTS: ...

AIM: To compare the diagnostic performance of 320-detector row computed tomographic angiography (CTA) with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) for the detection and characterization of intracranial aneurysms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two consecutive patients with non-traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) and suspected intracranial aneurysms were evaluated from January 2009 to October 2011. All ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether a new surgical clamp reduces unfavorable postoperative outcomes. METHODS Patients with trachomatous trichiasis (TT) were randomized to surgery with standard bilamellar tarsal rotation (BLTR) instrumentation or the TT clamp and were followed up for 2 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Postoperative TT, pyogenic granuloma formation, and eyelid ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The inference of homologies among DNA sequences, that is, positions in multiple genomes that share a common evolutionary origin, is a crucial, yet difficult task facing biologists. Its computational counterpart is known as the multiple sequence alignment problem. There are various criteria and methods available to perform multiple ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present work was to assess the short-term effects of stimulant medication use on risk of injury among children diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: The study group for this self-controlled case series study was children aged 1-18 years old diagnosed as having ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The efficacy and safety of rigid pericardial endoscopy as the promising minimally invasive approach to the pericardial space was evaluated. Techniques for cell transplantation, epicardial pacemaker lead implantation, and epicardial ablation were developed. METHODS: Two swine and 5 canines were studied to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ...

Sideritis perezlarae is a plant widely used in folk medicine in the South of Andalusia (Cádiz, Spain). In this work, a phytochemical analysis has led to the isolation and identification of the flavonoid 7-O- β -glucosyl-luteolin from a methanol extract. The total phenol content estimated by Folin-Ciocalteau assay and expressed ...

Prior studies have shown that the biological mixture of the two hydrophobic surfactant proteins, SP-B and SP-C, produces faster adsorption of the surfactant lipids to an air/water interface, and that they induce 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (POPE) to form inverse bicontinuous cubic phases. Previous studies have shown that SP-B has a much ...

White-spotting patterns in mammals can be caused by mutations in the gene KIT, whose protein is necessary for the normal migration and survival of melanocytes from the neural crest. The alpaca (Vicugna pacos) blue-eyed white (BEW) phenotype is characterized by 2 blue eyes and a solid white coat over the ...

Targeted genome engineering has become an important research area for diverse disciplines, with site-specific recombinases (SSRs) being among the most popular genome engineering tools. Their ability to trigger excision, integration, inversion and translocation has made SSRs an invaluable tool to manipulate DNA in vitro and in vivo. However, sophisticated strategies ...

BackgroundDecreased level of consciousness is a rare neurological manifestation of spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH), which typically presents with orthostatic headache. The optimal management of this uncommon presentation remains uncertain.MethodsWe analyzed the presentation, management and outcome of two patients in our institution and reviewed 22 patients reported in the literature with ...

Microbial community composition and diversity at a diesel contaminated railway site were investigated by pyrosequencing of bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA gene fragments to understand the inter-relationships between microbial community composition, pollution level, and soil geochemical and physical properties. To this end, 26 soil samples from four matrix types with ...

AimsHyperglycaemia during hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a risk predictor, but attempts to improve the prognosis by insulin-based glucose control have not been consistently successful. Increased glycaemic variability, a potential effect of insulin treatment, has been linked to a worse prognosis in critically ill patients. The present aim ...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in loss of muscle function due to rapid breakdown of contractile proteins. Glutamine supplementation improves clinical outcomes, but its effects on muscle function after SCI are unknown. Glutamine's benefits in non-skeletal muscle tissues involve elevated heat shock protein (Hsp)70 and Hsp25, but the muscle response ...

Balance impairment is a principal symptom of cerebellar disease, but is poorly understood partly because subjects with heterogenous cerebellar and extracerebellar lesions have often been studied. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) provides an opportunity to understand balance dysfunction associated with a relatively homogenous cerebellar lesion. This study investigated stance instability ...

Although it might appear that chromatin is randomly packed within the nucleus, recent data (Hou et al., 2012, in this issue of Molecular Cell) show that it is organized into defined and functionally important domains marked by preferred intradomain physical contacts, and with boundaries associated with insulator protein occupancy.

Applications of micro total analysis systems (μTAS) span basic-science research, clinical medicine, and field work. Assay devices designed for these applications offer improvements to existing methods or provide fundamentally new strategies. Both mature methods and novel techniques have benefited from the increased throughput, integration and miniaturization afforded by μTAS. Traditional ...

Mammalian non-selective transient receptor potential cation channels (TRPCs) are important in the regulation of cellular calcium homeostasis. In thyroid cells, including rat thyroid FRTL-5 cells, calcium regulates a multitude of processes. RT-PCR screening of FRTL-5 cells revealed the presence of TRPC2 channels only. Knockdown of TRPC2 using shRNA (shTRPC2) resulted ...

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is up to twice as prevalent among African Americans as Caucasians. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple common genetic risk variants for T2D; however, none of these studies were conducted exclusively among subjects of African ancestry. Investigating these known loci in other populations would ...

Many Proteobacteria are capable of quorum sensing using N-acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) signaling molecules that are synthesized by LuxI or LuxM homologs and detected by transcription factors of the LuxR family. Most quorum-sensing species have at least one LuxR and one LuxI homolog. However, members of the Escherichia, Salmonella, Klebsiella, and ...

Previous studies in referral populations have shown that fewer African American women complete dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) screening and are prescribed medications for osteoporosis. This study examines if these disparities exist in primary care practices. Of 4748 eligible women ≥60 years of age in primary care practices, we randomly selected ...

Polµ is the only DNA polymerase equipped with template-directed and terminal transferase activities. Polµ is also able to accept distortions in both primer and template strands, resulting in misinsertions and extension of realigned mismatched primer terminus. In this study, we propose a model for human Polµ-mediated dinucleotide expansion as a ...

In Arabidopsis thaliana, DES1 is the only identified l-Cysteine desulfhydrase located in the cytosol, and it is involved in the degradation of cysteine (Cys) and the concomitant production of H(2)S in this cell compartment. Detailed characterization of the T-DNA insertion mutants des1-1 and des1-2 has provided insight into the role ...

Object The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term results of cervical total disc replacement (TDR) and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) in the treatment of single-level cervical radiculopathy. Methods The results of 2 separate prospective, randomized, US FDA Investigational Device Exemption pivotal trials (Bryan Disc and ...