ABSTRACT. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive diagnostic method that offers a view into the superficial layers of the skin in vivo in real-time. An infrared broadband light source allows the investigation of skin architecture and changes up to a depth of 1 to 2 mm with a resolution between ...

International behavioral research requires instruments that are not culturally-biased to assess sensation seeking. In this study we described a culturally adapted version of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Chinese (BSSS-C) and its psychometric characteristics. The adapted scale was assessed using an adult sample (n=238) with diverse educational and residential ...

Periarticular osteotomies, either a high tibial osteotomy for a varus deformity or a distal femoral osteotomy for a valgus deformity, are performed for symptomatic unicompartmental degenerative joint disease (DJD) of the knee. These procedures provide pain relief by realigning the mechanical axis and unloading the degenerative compartment. Although arthroplasty has ...

To determine if a quality improvement intervention improves sleep and delirium/cognition. Observational, pre-post design. A tertiary academic hospital in the United States. 300 medical ICU patients. This medical ICU-wide project involved a "usual care" baseline stage, followed by a quality improvement stage incorporating multifaceted sleep-promoting interventions implemented with the aid ...

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has increasingly become an attractive alternative to total knee arthroplasty for early intervention. Clinical and biomechanical studies have shown that UKA offers advantages in early recovery, more natural function, and patient satisfaction. The literature has also shown that UKA exhibits a higher rate of revision than ...

Articular cartilage injury and degeneration occurs frequently in athletes and results from the significant chronic joint stress and acute traumatic injuries associated with high-impact sports. These injuries do not heal spontaneously and often lead to progressive painful impairment of joint function and limitation of sports participation. Untreated articular cartilage defects ...

Blood loss and transfusion are frequent among patients undergoing liver surgery. Concerns have been raised about the safety and efficacy of transfusing stored blood. The influence of transfusing fresh vs. stored blood on the liver has not been studied to date. We tested the hypothesis that transfusion of stored, but ...

The treatment of early osteoarthritis in middle-aged athletes with intra-articular (IA) viscosupplementation using hyaluronic acid (HA) has been used since the late 1980s. Administration of IA HA has demonstrated anti-inflammatory, anabolic, and analgesic effects. Treatment of acute injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and full thickness chondral lesions have ...

Middle-aged athletes represent adults from the age of 35 to 60 years for the purposes of this discussion. The prevalence of knee osteoarthritis increases with age, and older people are staying active longer. The indications for opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (owHTO) continue to grow. owHTO correct malalignment to unload ...

Knee arthroscopy for patients with osteoarthritis remains controversial. The outcome of arthroscopic debridement in a patient with symptomatic arthritis, and in the absence of mechanical symptoms, is inconsistent and short lived. However, in carefully selected patients with mild or moderate arthritis on standing radiographs, with the acute onset of symptoms, ...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is prevalent in today's population, including the athletic and recreationally active "middle-aged" population. OA is a degenerative condition of the articular/hyaline cartilage of synovial joints and commonly affects the knee joint. In general, athletic participation does not specifically influence a higher incidence of knee OA in this population; ...

To determine the association of circulating cell-free hemoglobin with poor clinical outcomes in patients with sepsis and to characterize the potential protective effects of acetaminophen, an inhibitor of hemoprotein-mediated oxidation. Retrospective observational study. A total of 391 critically ill patients with sepsis in multiple ICUs in an academic tertiary care ...

Regular exercise and weight reduction are not only important for maintaining general health, they are also strongly recommended conservative modalities for managing knee osteoarthritis (OA). The objective of this paper is to discuss the mechanics of knee joint loading and to review the most recent literature with respect to the ...

Model systems that evaluated different approaches to construct the central ether ring of maoecrystal V are described. Our first model systems attempted the ether formation using C-H functionalization reactions, which led to interesting rearrangements but none of the desired ether product. An intramolecular conjugate addition strategy was then explored that ...

A novel method to construct the 1-aryl-3-piperidone scaffold is described here. Starting from 3,5-dichloroaniline, a seven-step synthesis, without the use of protecting groups, generates the desired 3-piperidone ring in an overall yield of 30% through a key Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction and ring-closing metathesis, providing easy access to diverse and useful heterocycles.

Novel fluorescent dyes with ultra pseudo-Stokes Shift were prepared based on intramolecular energy transfer between a fluorescent donor and a Cyanine-7 acceptor. The prepared dyes could be excited at ~ 320 nm and emit fluorescence at ~ 780 nm. The energy transfer efficiencies of the system are found to be ...

The pentacyclic Melodinus alkaloid (±)-meloscine was synthesized in 19 chemical steps from 2-bromobenzaldehyde through a route featuring an allenyl azide cyclization cascade to deliver the core azabicyclo[3.3.0]octane substructure. Peripheral functionalization of this core included a Tollens-type aldol condensation to set the quaternary center at C(20) and a diastereoselective ring closing ...

The basement membrane (BM) and extracellular matrix (ECM) play critical roles in developmental and cancer biology, and are of great interest in biomathematics. We introduce a model of mechanical cell-BM-ECM interactions that extends current (visco)elastic models (e.g. [8,16]), and connects to recent agent-based cell models (e.g. [2,3,20,26]). We model the ...

Early-onset and exclusive breast-feeding provides a significant health benefit to infants compared with infant formulas. The aim of this study was to compare mature breast milk with standard infant formulas by examining their effects on non-vascular smooth muscle contraction and their antioxidative properties. The pharmacologic effects of breast milk and ...

Acute heart failure is a public health issue with morbidity and mortality exceeding that of myocardial infarction. Novel compounds for the treatment of acute heart failure are clearly needed and fall into the general categories of inotropic, vasodilatory and other compounds in phase I to III of development. Furthest along ...

Experimental evidence suggests that a tumor's environment may be critical to designing successful therapeutic protocols: Modeling interactions between a tumor and its environment could improve our understanding of tumor growth and inform approaches to treatment. This paper describes an efficient, flexible, hybrid cellular automaton-based implementation of numerical solutions to multiple ...

ABSTRACT The purpose of this special issue of Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics is to present an evidence-based system to guide the physical therapy management of patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Two systematic guides to patient management will be presented. The first is a care path ...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mechanisms of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB)-induced dysregulation between thrombin and its regulatory anticoagulant activated protein C (APC). A prospective observational cohort study. A tertiary care university hospital and associated research laboratory. Twenty patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery with (n = ...

The objectives of this study were to determine the benefit of pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based tumor volume (Tv) measurements in patients presenting with squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) involving the oral cavity subsites most frequently associated with mandibular bone invasion. A 10-year retrospective study of all patients undergoing surgical resection ...

How do Hmong immigrant adolescent girls decide to run away, return home, leave again, or stay home? Video diaries by 11 sexually exploited runaway Hmong girls, ages 13-16, revealed four themes: "fighting restrictions," or resisting family and cultural expectations and desires to be like other American teens; "not running away, ...

In the paper we consider the model of tumour angiogenesis process proposed by Bodnar and Fory (2009). The model combines ideas of Hahnfeldt et al. (1999) and Agur et al. (2004) describing the dynamics of tumour, angiogenic proteins and effective vessels density. Presented analysis is focused on the dependance of ...

A middle-aged man of South Asian decent presented with a 4-month history of bilateral sensory disturbance affecting the median nerve distribution and dorsum of both feet. Neurological examination was otherwise normal. A patchy absence of sensory responses was noted on nerve conduction studies and electromyogram (NCS/EMG). Over the next 3 months ...

Over the last decade, neuromuscular ultrasonography has emerged as a useful tool for the diagnosis of peripheral nerve disorders. This article reviews sonographic findings of normal nerves, including key quantitative ultrasound measurements that are helpful in the evaluation of focal and possibly generalized peripheral neuropathies. It also discusses several recent ...

Locoregional control is associated with breast cancer-specific and overall survival in select women with breast cancer. Although several patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics have been shown to contribute to locoregional recurrence (LRR), studies evaluating factors related to radiotherapy (XRT) technique have been limited. We investigated the relationship between LRR location ...

Cell migration on and through extracellular matrix is fundamental in a wide variety of physiological and pathological phenomena, and is exploited in scaffold-based tissue engineering. Migration is regulated by a number of extracellular matrix- or cell-derived biophysical parameters, such as matrix fiber orientation, pore size, and elasticity, or cell deformation, ...

Mechanics play a role in the initiation and progression of osteoarthritis. However, our understanding of which mechanical parameters are most important, and what their impact is on the disease, is limited by the challenge of measuring the most important mechanical quantities in living subjects. Consequently, comprehensive statements cannot be made ...

The most favorable mechanical environment for the hip is one that is free of both instability and impingement, creating a concentric articulation with optimum femoral head coverage by the acetabulum. Anatomic variations such as acetabular dysplasia with associated instability, and femoroacetabular impingement with abnormal constraint, will lead to abnormal joint ...

Epidemiological data demonstrates that improved regulation of blood glucose correlates with better cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. Conversely, some interventional studies have demonstrated that tight glycemic control has no benefit or can even result in worse CV outcomes. These conclusions parallel the paradox that glycemic control has proven beneficial for microvascular outcomes, ...

We started offering an introduction to very basic aspects of molecular biology, for the reader coming from computer sciences, information technology, mathematics. Similarly we offered a minimum of information about pathways and networks in graph theory, for a reader coming from the bio-medical sector. At the crossover about the two ...

Dietary treatment is important for the management of Parkinson's disease (PD). Our objective was to describe the dietary habits and assess the nutritional status of Ghanaian patients with PD. This study is part of a larger project, for which Ghana has been selected as a pilot country. Fifty-five Ghanaian patients ...

In medicine, the use of silica nanoparticles (SiO(2) NPs) offers new perspectives in biosensor, drug delivery and cancer therapy. However, questions about potential toxic and deleterious effects of SiO(2) NPs have also been raised. The aim of this study was to investigate the induction of cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and apoptosis ...

Knowledge about the hippocampal morphologic mechanisms of learning and memory for maternal mild zinc deficiency during pregnancy/lactation followed by zinc supplementation of pups after weaning is limited. This study examined the effects of zinc deficiency and zinc supplementation on cognition and hippocampal neurons. One-day pregnant rats were randomly divided into ...

Deformable models are widely used for image segmentation, most commonly to find single objects within an image. Although several methods have been proposed to segment multiple objects using deformable models, substantial limitations in their utility remain. This paper presents a multiple object segmentation method using a novel and efficient object ...

Abstract Hepcidin is an iron regulatory protein mainly synthesized by the liver. Hepatocyte production of hepcidin is responsible for serum hepcidin, is responsive to body iron stores, and is critical for maintaining iron homeostasis. Monocytes and macrophages also express hepcidin, and in contrast to the liver, hepcidin expression is primarily ...

Cell proliferation is controlled by many complex regulatory networks. Our purpose is to analyse, through mathematical modeling, the effects of growth factors on the dynamics of the division cycle in cell populations. Our work is based on an age-structured PDE model of the cell division cycle within a population of ...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a significant and growing concern to a large segment of the population. Effective treatments for slowing or stopping the progression of the disease are not available despite a great deal of investment-backed effort on the part of academia, government, and the pharmaceutical industry. Target selection has been ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA level monitoring is currently used to guide the duration of interferon-containing treatment regimens. Nowadays, HCV RNA level quantification is based on real-time polymerase chain reaction assays that are both sensitive and accurate. Assessing the virological response to therapy is used to shorten treatment duration in ...

Kaposi sarcoma is the most common HIV-associated neoplasm, frequently presenting with oral mucosal involvement. This retrospective study aimed to assess and highlight the histomorphological spectrum of oral Kaposi sarcoma. A total of 135 cases diagnosed between 1990 and 2011 were retrieved from the archives of the Oral and Dental Hospital ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between oxidative stress and chronic daily headache (CDH) in children. Although there are reports that oxidative injury may play a role in the pathophysiology of some neurologic disorders, such as migraine and epilepsy, by disrupting or destroying cell membranes through ...

To estimate the nutritional risk in children 2 to 6 y old. The sample consisted of 3058 children enrolled in public and private schools in nine Brazilian cities. The assessment of nutrient intake was based on 1-d data combining direct individual weighing of foods and a food diary. A second ...

Neurological examination (NE) is a key part of practice for many doctors. UK students learn NE from a variety of specialty tutors and often find it difficult. This article suggests one way of introducing NE interactively with students in their first clinical year supplementary to clerking patients. The content presupposes ...

There have been recent key advances in the understanding of hepatitis E virus infection. Since the early 1980s, when the virus was first discovered, hepatitis E has been described as a disease that is endemic only in the African and Asian subcontinents, a disease that is transmitted via the fecal-oral ...

In this work an optimization problem for a leukemia treatment model based on the Gompertzian law of cell growth is considered. The quantities of the leukemic and of the healthy cells at the end of the therapy are chosen as the criterion of the treatment quality. In the case where ...

ABSTRACT This article presents the elements of the Observation and Assessment section of the Infant Care Path for Physical Therapy in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The types of physical therapy assessments presented in this path are evidence-based and the suggested timing of these assessments is primarily based on ...

Malawi women are in the ironic juxtaposition of being socially disempowered while, at the same time, thought to hold the key to shaping an effective community response to the HIV crisis. Based on this juxtaposition, a descriptive, qualitative study was conducted in Malawi and the United States where 26 participants ...