Few studies address the extent to which, during the process of litigation, individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury might malinger in their performance on neuropsychological assessment batteries. This study explored whether financial settlement influenced neuropsychological test performance and activities of daily living in litigants (N = 31) who were tested ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Stimulated by rapid modernization and industrialization, there is massive rural--urban migration in China. The migrants are highly susceptible to smoking and mental health problems. This study examined the association between both perceived work stress and perceived life stress with smoking behavior among this group during the period of ...

Sporadic ALS is a multifactorial disease for which there are probably multiple genetic risk factors. An association with increased parental age might suggest there is a role for specific (epi)genetic changes. Previous studies have shown conflicting results on the association between parental age and the risk of ALS. A large, ...

Objective. To evaluate cervical stiffness during pregnancy using ultrasound-derived elastography, a method used to estimate the average tissue displacement (strain) on a defined region of interest when oscillatory compression is applied. Methods. Strain was calculated in two regions of interest, the endocervical canal and the entire cervix, from three anatomical ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In low-resource settings, where abortion is highly restricted and self-induced abortions are common, access to post-abortion care (PAC) services, especially treatment of incomplete terminations, is a priority. Standard post-abortion care has involved surgical intervention but can be hard to access in these areas. Misoprostol provides an alternative to ...

Abstract Objective. The aim of this study was to report on the safety and efficacy of 90 consecutive laparoscopic pyeloplasties carried out in a university hospital. Material and methods. The outcomes of 90 transperitoneal dismembered pyeloplasties that were performed by residents at the hospital from March 2004 to March 2010 ...

Protein kinase Cα (PKCα) has been implicated in the regulation of a variety of cellular functions, such as proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis, in response to a diverse range of stimuli. Activated PKCα mediates oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammatory reaction. Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for the proper development of the ...

Halocycloalkenones are demonstrated to function as potent dienophiles in inter- and intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloadditions. We have found 2-brominated cycloalkenone dienophiles to be both highly endo selective and significantly more reactive than their non-halogenated parent compounds. A method for the facile conversion of brominated cyclobutanone DA adducts to synthetically useful cyclopropyl ...

We demonstrate the feasibility of mapping a sentinel lymph node (SLN) and urinary bladder by using modified single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as a nonionizing photoacoustic (PA) contrast agent. To improve the PA sensitivity, indocyanine green (ICG) was conjugated with SWNTs and the optical absorption of SWNTs-ICG was enhanced by approximately ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Triple-negative breast cancers (BC) represent a heterogeneous subtype of BCs, generally associated with an aggressive clinical course and where targeted therapies are currently limited. Target validation studies for all BC subtypes have largely employed established BC cell lines, which have proven to be effective tools for drug discovery. ...

Gray matter atrophy, glucose hypometabolism, and β-amyloid Aβ deposition are well-described hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, but their relationships are poorly understood. The present study aims to compare the local levels of these three alterations in humans with Alzheimer's disease. Structural magnetic resonance imaging, (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET), and (18)F-florbetapir ...

The Vif protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) promotes viral replication by downregulation of the cell-encoded, antiviral APOBEC3 proteins. These proteins exert their suppressive effects through the inhibition of viral reverse transcription as well as the induction of cytidine deamination within nascent viral cDNA. Importantly, these two effects ...

The general transcription factor (TF) IIB is required for RNA polymerase (Pol) II initiation and extends with its B-reader element into the Pol II active centre cleft. Low-resolution structures of the Pol II-TFIIB complex indicated how TFIIB functions in DNA recruitment, but they lacked nucleic acids and half of the ...

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope proteins E1 and E2 play a key role in host cell entry and represent important targets for vaccine and drug development. Here, we characterized HCV recombinants with chimeric E1/E2 complexes in vitro. Using genotype 1a/2a JFH1-based recombinants expressing 1a core-NS2, we exchanged E2 with ...

Prothrombin (Factor II, FII) deficiency is an extremely rare autosomal recessive condition with an estimated incidence of 1:2 million. As severe and life-threatening bleeding is rare in FII deficiency, on demand therapy with administration of prothrombin complex concentrates (PCCs) or fresh frozen plasma is generally performed, and prophylactic therapy for ...

ABSTRACT: Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the one-year societal costs due to a stroke event in Italy and to investigate variables associated with costs in different phases following hospital admission. METHODS: The patients were enrolled in 44 hospitals across the country and data on socio-demographic, clinical ...

Epidural hematoma (EDH) is a type of life-threatening traumatic brain injury. Little is known about the extent to which EDH may cause neural damage and regenerative response in the cerebral cortex. Here we attempted to explore these issues by using guinea pigs as an experimental model. Unilateral EDH was induced ...

ObjectiveTo analyze the incidence of postparotidectomy facial nerve dysfunction in pediatric patients and to evaluate the association between patient demographics or underlying pathology and functional outcomes.Study DesignCase series with chart review.SettingTertiary-care pediatric hospital.Subjects and MethodsWe reviewed charts of patients younger than 18 years who underwent parotidectomy performed by a pediatric ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Leishmania major, a protozoan parasite, is the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis. Due to the development of resistance against the currently available anti-leishmanial drugs, there is a growing need for specific inhibitors and novel drug targets. In this regards, aminoacyl tRNA synthetases, the linchpins of protein synthesis, have ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The virus-host arms race is a major theater for evolutionary innovation. Archaea and bacteria have evolved diverse, elaborate antivirus defense systems that function on two general principles: i) immune systems that discriminate self DNA from nonself DNA and specifically destroy the foreign, in particular viral, genomes, whereas the ...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health and socioeconomic problem worldwide for the high rate of death and long-term disability. Prior studies have summarized evidence from large scale randomized trials, finding no intervention shown convincing efficacy for acute TBI management. The present empirical study set out to assess another ...

Abstract Objective: This study evaluated the noninvasive, point-of-care diabetes screening device, Scout DS(®) (VeraLight Inc., Albuquerque, NM) (SCOUT), in a native Asian Indian cohort. Research Design and Methods: SCOUT is a tabletop, skin fluorescence spectrometer that reports a risk score following a 3-4-min noninvasive measurement of a subject's left volar ...

BACKGROUND: Sustained cardiac pressure overload-induced hypertrophy and pathological remodeling frequently leads to heart failure. Casein kinase-2 interacting protein-1 (CKIP-1) has been identified to be an important regulator of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. However, the physiological role of CKIP-1 in the heart is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: The results of ...

To determine whether evidence of neuronal dysfunction or demise preceded deposition of Lewy pathology in vulnerable neurons in Parkinson disease (PD). We examined the extent of nigral dysfunction and degeneration among 63 normal, incidental Lewy body disease (ILBD), and PD cases based on tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity and neuron densities, ...

The dramatic differences between the properties of molecules formed from the late p-block elements of the first row of the periodic table (N-F) and those of the corresponding elements in subsequent rows is well recognized as the first row anomaly. Certain properties of the atoms, such as the relative energies ...

Dengue virus immune protection is specific to the serotype encountered and is thought to persist throughout one's lifetime. Many serotype cross-reactive memory B cells isolated from humans with previous dengue infection are specific for the nonstructural and the prM structural viral proteins, and they can enhance infection in vitro. However, ...

In an effort to update and clarify policies on tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing (DST), the World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned a systematic review evaluating WHO-endorsed diagnostic tests. We report the results of this systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility of phenotypic DST for first-line and second-line ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) plays important roles in kidney disease susceptibility and atherogenesis in experimental models. Relationships between serum MCP- 1 concentration and early nephropathy and subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) were assessed in African Americans (AAs) with type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS: Serum MCP-1 concentration, urine albumin:creatinine ratio ...

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface proteins not only are incorporated into the virion envelope but in addition form subviral particles (SVP) consisting solely of surface proteins and lipids. Heterologous expression of the small HBV envelope protein S produces secreted spherical SVP 20 nm in diameter, with approximately 100 S ...

An attractive approach for developing therapeutic peptides is to enhance binding to their targets by stabilizing their helical conformation, for example stabilized BimBH3 peptides (BimSAHB) designed to induce apoptosis. Unexpectedly, we found that such modified peptides have reduced affinity for their targets, the pro-survival Bcl-2 proteins. We attribute this loss ...

Drug resistance is the major obstacle to successful cancer therapy. Our study focuses on resistance to Aurora kinase inhibitors tested as anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials. We have used 2-D electrophoresis in pH range of 4-7 and 6-11 followed by protein identification using MALDI-TOF/TOF to compare protein composition of HCT116 ...

BACKGROUND: /st>Although thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) is considered the gold standard for post-thoracotomy pain relief, thoracic paravertebral block (PVB) and intrathecal opioid (ITO) administration have also been shown to be efficacious. We hypothesized that the combination of PVB and ITO provides analgesia comparable with that of TEA. METHODS: /st>After local ...

Since drug induced liver injury (DILI) remains a major reason for late stage drug attrition, predictive assays are needed that can be deployed throughout the drug discovery process Clinical DILI can be predicted with a sensitivity of ~50% and a false positive rate of ~5% using 24 hour cultures of ...

Fig mosaic virus (FMV), a member of the newly formed genus Emaravirus, is a segmented negative-strand RNA virus. Each of the six genomic FMV segments contains a single open reading frame: that of RNA4 encodes the protein p4. FMV-p4 has been suggested to be the movement protein (MP) of the ...

Human chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections pose a significant public health threat necessitating the development of novel treatments and vaccines. HCV infections range from spontaneous resolution to end stage liver disease. Approximately 10-30% of HCV infections undergo spontaneous resolution independent of treatment via yet to be defined mechanisms. These ...

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is safe and effective. This less invasive option involving fewer incisions and umbilical approaches is coined as single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS). Over the last 3 years, we performed 46 % of our LAGBs as SILS with excellent results. METHODS: This is a retrospective review of 1,644 ...

Phototropism allows plants to align their photosynthetic tissues with incoming light. The direction of incident light is sensed by the phototropin family of blue light photoreceptors (phot1 and phot2 in Arabidopsis), which are light-activated protein kinases. The kinase activity of phototropins and phosphorylation of residues in the activation loop of ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Many older people in long-term care do not receive evidence-based diagnosis or management for heart failure; it is not known whether this can be achieved for this population. We initiated an onsite heart failure service, compared with 'usual care' with the aim of establishing the feasibility of accurate ...

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids, hydrolyzed by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), have multiple biological functions, including the regulation of vascular tone, renal tubular transport, and being anti-inflammatory. Inhibitors of sEH have been demonstrated to be antihypertensive and renal protective. To elucidate the role of sEH in glomerulonephritis, we first determined the expression of ...

Alpha interferon (IFN-α) production is triggered when influenza virus RNA is detected by appropriate pattern recognition receptors in the host cell. IFN-α induces the expression of more than 300 interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), and this blunts influenza virus replication. The human ISG MxA can inhibit influenza A virus replication in mouse ...

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent mesenchymal progenitor cells, originally identified in bone-marrow. Little is known about MSCs of the head and neck region. We investigated cell biological properties with a potential impact on wound healing of 2 different tissue-resident MSC populations. METHODS: MSCs were isolated from human nasal ...

Abstract Background: Improved cosmesis is widely recognized as the main benefit of single-port laparoscopy (SPL). Recently, some centers have started to perform SPL in infants and neonates. However, in our experience, the cosmetic result following traditional laparoscopic surgery in this age range is excellent. This study assessed infants' postoperative scars ...

The vast range of C60 derivatives makes it difficult to assess potential environmental impact of this class of materials, while past environmental studies mostly focused only on pristine C60. Central to derivatized C60's potential to negatively impact (micro)biological receptors upon unintended release is its unique property of mediating the transfer ...

BACKGROUND: Rickets is a complication of infantile osteopetrosis and pre-treatment recognition of this complication is important. OBJECTIVE: To describe four children with infantile osteopetrosis complicated by rickets (osteopetrorickets) and review the relevant literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective chart analysis of four infants with osteopetrorickets and a systematic review of the ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the premorbid use of secondary prevention medications in patients with recurrent vascular events. DESIGN: Prospective, observational, population based study. SETTING: The Dijon Stroke Registry and the registry of myocardial infarction of Dijon and Côte d'Or, France. PATIENTS: All patients with cerebral ischaemia (ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: DJ-1 can induce the tumor cell proliferation and invasion via down-regulating PTEN in many malignant tumors, and correlated to prognostic significance. However, the tumorigenesis role and clinical significance of DJ-1 in supraglottic squamous cell carcinoma (SSCC) is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the DJ-1 the relationship between DJ-1 ...

We characterized 12 Exophiala strains isolated over a 15-year period to the species level using phenotypic tests and ITS and Rpb1 sequencing and described the clinical spectrum of the 12 patients. Eight patients had nails or skin infections, two had invasive infections and two had colonization of the gastrointestinal tract. ...

When a snarling Hurricane Sandy knocked the lights out at Bellevue Hospital Center on that Monday night, the staff murmured a collective chant: "One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi . . . ." We'd been told that if the electricity came back on before we hit "ten-Mississippi," then the backup generators were working fine. A ...

BST-2/CD317/tetherin is a host factor that inhibits HIV-1 release and is counteracted by HIV-1 Vpu. Structural studies indicate that the BST-2 ectodomain assumes a coiled-coil conformation. Here we studied the role of the BST-2 ectodomain for tethering function. First, we addressed the importance of the length and structure of the ...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a novel flat-panel single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT in patients with suspicion of osteomyelitis (OM) of the jaw in comparison with conventional orthopantomography (OPT), planar bone scintigraphy (PS) and CT alone. METHODS: Forty-two patients (21 female, 21 ...