Rifampin (RIF) susceptibility is a key factor in determining the treatment effectiveness of the standardized treatment regimens. In M. tuberculosis, both target gene mutation and efflux pump play major roles in the resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs. By eliminating RIF-resistant strains with rpoB mutation, the choice of RIF mono-resistant strains may ...

Hydrogel-containing core-shell capsules are useful as drug delivery vehicles for many biomedical applications, especially when release of incorporated guests can be controlled. Here, we developed a one-step organic solvent-free method to prepare such core-shell capsules using a synthetic and a natural supramolecular hydrogel, for the core and shell, respectively. A ...

Cernunnos is a DNA repair factor of the nonhomologous end-joining machinery. Its deficiency in humans causes radiosensitive severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) with microcephaly, characterized in part by a profound lymphopenia. In contrast to the human condition, the immune system of Cernunnos knockout (KO) mice is not overwhelmingly affected. In ...

This study validates a new self-report measure, the Ostracism Experience Scale for Adolescents (OES-A). Nineteen items were tested on a sample of 876 high school seniors to assess 2 of the most common ostracism experiences: being actively excluded from the peer group and being largely ignored by others. Exploratory and ...

Staphylococcus aureus is a human commensal and pathogen that is capable of forming biofilms on a variety of host tissues and implanted medical devices. Biofilm-associated infections resist antimicrobial chemotherapy and attack from the host immune system, making these infections particularly difficult to treat. In order to gain insight into environmental ...

Studying the essence of a syndrome has been a key challenge in the field of Chinese medicine. Until now, due to limitations of the methods available, the progress towards understanding such complicated systems has been slow. Metabonomics encompasses the dynamics, composition and analysis of metabolites, enabling the observation of changes ...

OBJECTIVE: To test the relationship between older Americans Act (OAA) program expenditures and the prevalence of low-care residents in nursing homes (NHs). DATA SOURCES AND COLLECTION: Two secondary data sources: State Program Reports (state expenditure data) and NH facility-level data downloaded from LTCfocUS.org for 16,030 US NHs (2000-2009). STUDY DESIGN: ...

Longitudinal studies, where data are repeatedly collected on subjects over a period, are common in medical research. When estimating the effect of a time-varying treatment or exposure on an outcome of interest measured at a later time, standard methods fail to give consistent estimators in the presence of time-varying confounders ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine the association between occupational lifting and the risk of fetal death according to gestational age. METHODS: We used data from the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996-2002). Among 71 500 occupationally active women, 2886 experienced a fetal death. Information on lifting ...

Anionic hydrated titanate (HnTiOm: HTO) nanosheets and cationic magnesium-aluminum layered double hydroxide (Mg-Al LDH) nanosheets were electrophoretically deposited on positively and negatively charged indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrates, respectively. The HTO nanosheets and Mg-Al LDH nanosheets obtained were identified in neutral water as H2Ti4O9•nH2O with a -potential of -23mV ...

Mice expressing a germline mutation in the phospholipase C-γ1-binding site of linker for activation of T cells (LAT) show progressive lymphoproliferation and ultimately die at 4-6 mo age. The hyperactivated T cells in these mice show defective TCR-induced calcium flux but enhanced Ras/ERK activation, which is critical for disease progression. ...

Spotting trends: Upon going from Tb(III) to Yb(III) centers in the complexes of the DOTA(4-) ligand a reorientation of the easy axis of magnetization from perpendicular to parallel to the LnO bond of the apical water molecule is experimentally observed and theoretically predicted. Only ions with an odd number of ...

Abstract Over the past decade, the treatment of patients with CLL has been improved by several new cytostatic agents and monoclonal antibodies. This development has resulted in higher response rates and more profound levels of immunosuppression than with previously used treatments. With the intrinsic immune defect of CLL, the degree ...

BACKGROUND:Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) in children and adolescence is increasing worldwide; however, its pattern may be different between Asians and Americans. We compare the prevalence and patterns of MetSyn between American and Korean children and adolescents between roughly 1998 and 2007.METHODS:Data from the American and Korean versions of the NHANES (NHANES ...

This paper reports a single-institution experience with the use of isolated limb infusion for limb salvage in locally advanced, unresectable, recurrent limb threatening soft tissue sarcomas. Background: Locally advanced, limb threatening soft tissue sarcomas (STS) pose a significant treatment challenge. We report our experience using isolated limb infusion (ILI) in ...

Like the larger non-planar Möbius rings, porphyrinoid aromaticity is not due primarily to the macrocyclic π conjugation of the corresponding annulene perimeters. The block-localized wavefunction (BLW) derived aromatic stabilization energies (ASE) of several porphyrinoids reveal that, on a per atom basis, the appended 6π electron heterocycles of porphyrinoids confers aromaticity ...

Several ecological and genetic factors affect the diet specialization of insect herbivores. The evolution of specialization may be constrained by lack of genetic variation in herbivore performance on different food-plant species. By traditional view, trade-offs, that is, negative genetic correlations between the performance of the herbivores on different food-plant species ...

Upregulation of lipogenesis is a hallmark of cancer and blocking the lipogenic pathway is known to cause tumor cell death by apoptosis. However, the exact role of lipogenesis in tumor initiation is as yet poorly understood. We examined the expression profile of key lipogenic genes in clinical samples of ductal ...

Vector Symbolic Architectures (VSAs) such as Holographic Reduced Representations (HRRs) are computational associative memories used by cognitive psychologists to model behavioural and neurological aspects of human memory. We present a novel analysis of the mathematics of VSAs and a novel technique for representing data in HRRs. Encoding and decoding in ...

Abstract Objective: To investigate the potential value of maternal serum concentration of activin-A at 30-33 weeks' gestation in the prediction of preeclampsia (PE) developing at or after 34 weeks. Methods: Serum concentrations of activin-A were measured at 11-13 and at 30-33 weeks' gestation in a case-control study of 50 cases ...

Frontal subcortical cognitive defects are predominant in Parkinson's disease (PD). Temporal lobe dysfunction seems more relevant for progression to dementia. We aimed to study the relative importance of temporal lobe defects versus executive impairment in the progression to dementia in PD by using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS). The (1)H-MRS ...

HMGB3 (high-mobility group box 3) is an X-linked member of a family of sequence-independent chromatin-binding proteins and functions as a universal sentinel for nucleic acid-mediated innate immune responses. The splice variant expression, promoter characterization and targeted microRNAs of the bovine HMGB3 gene were investigated to explore its expression pattern and ...

Many compounds containing a five-membered heterocyclic ring display exceptional chemical properties and versatile biological activities. In this Minireview, thiadiazoles are summarized according to their therapeutic potential, highlighting the versatility of this scaffold in medicinal chemistry. The unique properties of thiadiazoles are also discussed in relation to their potential effect on ...

summary Orthodontics as health care is sometimes at odds with modern marketing with its strong focus on esthetics. In this commentary, I highlight how important it is that research of orthodontic treatment as a value for the entire community is performed and published.

First instars of Lucilia ampullacea Villeneuve, Lucilia caesar Linnaeus, Lucilia cuprina Weidemann, Lucilia richardsi Collin, Lucilia sericata Meigen and Lucilia silvarum Meigen (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are thoroughly documented with scanning electron microscopy images, light microscopy photographs and line drawings. The following morphological structures are documented: pseudocephalon, antennal complex, maxillary palpus, facial ...

Chronic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a major contributor to obesity-induced insulin resistance in the liver. However, the molecular link between obesity and ER stress remains to be identified. Proteasomes are important multicatalytic enzyme complexes that degrade misfolded and oxidized proteins. Here, we report that both mouse models of obesity ...

Rifampicin resistance in clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis arises primarily through the selection of bacterial variants harbouring mutations in the 81 base-pair rifampicin resistance determining region of the rpoB gene. Whilst these mutations were shown to infer a fitness-cost in the absence of antibiotic pressure, compensatory mutations in rpoA and ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In contrast with human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), which causes ATL (adult T-cell leukemia), HTLV-2 has not been causally linked to malignant disease. The minus strand of the HTLV genomes encode the regulatory proteins HTLV-1 bZIP factor (HBZ) for HTLV-1 and antisense protein of HTLV-2 (APH-2) ...

Direct electrophilic borylation using Y(2)BCl (Y(2) = Cl(2) or o-catecholato) with equimolar AlCl(3) and a tertiary amine has been applied to a wide range of arenes and heteroarenes. In situ functionalization of the sensitive ArBCl(2) products is possible with TMS(2)MIDA, to afford bench-stable and easily isolable MIDA-boronates in moderate to ...

Islets microencapsulation holds great promise to treat type 1 diabetes. Currently used alginate microcapsules often have islets protruding outside capsules, leading to inadequate immuno-protection. A novel design of microcapsules with core-shell structures using a two-fluid co-axial electro-jetting is reported. Improved encapsulation and diabetes correction is achieved in a single step ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In the Netherlands in 2006, a health insurance system reform took place in which regulated competition between insurers and providers is key. In this context, the government placed greater emphasis on patients being able to choose health insurers and providers as a precondition for competition. Patient choice became ...

Analysis of multiple protein-protein interactions using microarray technology remains challenging, and site-specific immobilization of functional proteins is a key step in these approaches. Here we establish the efficient synthesis of protein-DNA conjugates for several members of a small family of GTPases. The family of Rab/Ypt GTPases is intimately involved in ...

*Background: Neutrophils, key cells of the innate immune system, were previously thought to be terminally differentiated cells, incapable of altering their gene expression following differentiation and maturation in the bone marrow. Only recently it has been shown that neutrophils carry out rapid and complex changes in gene expression during inflammatory ...

Exclusion of malaria traditionally requires three negative serial thick and thin blood films. However, many clinical laboratories now routinely perform rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in addition to blood films when malaria is suspected. We sought to determine whether serial testing is necessary in this setting. We examined 388 cases of ...

The ability to adaptively exert control over negative emotions is associated with beneficial mental health outcomes. Less is known about the associated emotional sequelae surrounding controllable versus uncontrollable positive emotional experiences. The ability to harness positive emotions is of particular importance in populations involving disrupted positive emotion functioning. In the ...

Growth anomalies (GAs) in corals are characterized by morphological abnormalities of the skeleton as well as polyps and coenosarcs. GAs commonly appear as protuberances with fewer polyps and are paler in color due to decreased zooxanthellae density. To test the hypothesis that morphological anomalies in GAs may be caused by ...

Abstract Objective. To evaluate the predictive value of transient elastography (TE), easy available biochemical scores and a combination of these to detect advanced liver fibrosis (i.e. fibrosis stage ≥F3) in patients with chronic liver disease of different etiologies. Material and methods. A valid TE was obtained in 418 patients with ...

We present here the positional cloning of the Danio rerio albino mutant and show that the affected gene encodes Slc45a2. The human orthologous gene has previously been shown to be involved in human skin color variation and mutations therein have been implicated in the disease OCA 4. Through ultrastructural analysis ...

Background: Adolescents with anorexia nervosa rarely present themselves as having a problem and are usually reliant on parents to recognise the problem and facilitate help-seeking. This study aimed to investigate parents' experiences of recognising that their child had an eating problem and deciding to seek help.Methods: A qualitative study with ...

CA II makes a good PET: Discovering positron emission tomography (PET) probes with high target affinities is challenging. PET probe discovery using in situ click chemistry uses (19) F-bearing fragments as (18) F surrogates. This ensures that the lead hits and PET probes have equivalent chemical or biological characteristics, making PET probe discovery ...

There is a paucity of explicit literature outlining methods for single-interview studies with children, and almost none have focused on engaging children with disabilities. Drawing from a pilot study, we address these gaps by describing innovative techniques, strategies, and methods for engaging children and youth with disabilities in a single ...

The Pacific Northwest of the US is a large, sparsely populated region. A telehealth programme called Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) was tested in this region in 2009. Weekly videoconferences were held in the areas of hepatitis C, chronic pain, integrated addictions and psychiatry, and HIV/AIDS. Rural clinicians ...

Taking plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited porous SiOCH (p-SiOCH) and octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) as model cases, this study elucidates the chemical reaction pathways for alkyl-based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on porous carbon-doped organosilica films under N2-H2 vacuum plasma illumination. In contrast to previous findings that carboxylic groups are found in alkyl-based SAMs only ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression encoded by a variety of organisms, including viruses. Although the function of most of the viral miRNAs is currently unknown, there is evidence that both viral and host miRNAs contribute to the interactions between viruses and their hosts. miRNAs constitute ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:No recent international studies provide evidence about its prevalence, trends, or social determinants of physical fighting in adolescents. We studied cross-national epidemiologic trends over time in the occurrence of frequent physical fighting, demographic variations in reported trends, and national wealth and income inequality as correlates.METHODS:Cross-sectional surveys were administered ...

A diastereodivergent preparation of two N-alkenylnitrones (9 and 11) from easily available R-2,3-O-cyclohexylideneglyceraldehyde (5) led to an enantiodivergent synthesis of both enantiomers of the Dendrobate alkaloid 241D in a sequential two-directional approach involving intramolecular nitrone cycloaddition as the key step. Either of these two nitrones could, in principle, be utilized ...

Succinate-driven oxidation via CII may have a significant contribution towards the high rates of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by mitochondria. Here, we show that the CII Q site inhibitor, TTFA blocks succinate + rotenone-driven ROS production, whereas the CIII Qo inhibitor stigmatellin has no effect, indicating CII, not CIII ...

Introduction: After a training period, patients maintained on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) assume responsibility for their own treatment. With the aid of appropriate tools, home visits help with ongoing evaluation and training for these patients. METHODS: We conducted a home visit survey of 50 patients maintained on CAPD in ...

Background: Previous studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) had less atrophy in some medial temporal structures than Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, very few studies have focused on the entorhinal cortex, which is closely related to episodic memory. We compared the degree of entorhinal ...

The preparation of dinuclear rhodium clusters and their use as catalysts is challenging because these clusters are unstable, evolving readily into species with higher nuclearities. We now present a novel synthetic route to generate rhodium dimers on the surface of MgO by a stoichiometrically simple surface-mediated reaction involving [Rh(C(2) H(4) ...