ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Rifampin is one of the most important drugs in first-line therapies for tuberculosis. The renal toxicity of rifampin has been reported sporadically and acute tubulointerstitial nephritis (ATIN) is a frequent histological finding. We describe for the first time a case of ATIN and Fanconi syndrome presenting as hypokalemic ...

We present results of a comparative study of colloidal anatase titanium oxide nanorods and extremely thin atomic wires of systematically decreasing (2.6 nm down to 0.5 nm) diameter in terms of their optical absorption as well as steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence. Steady-state photoluminescence spectra of the titania samples show three ...

Introduction: Hyaline articular cartilage is the connective tissue responsible for frictionless joint movement. Its degeneration ultimately results in complete loss of joint function in the late stages of osteoarthritis. Intrinsic repair is compromised, and cartilage tissue regeneration is difficult. However, new options are available to repair cartilage tissue by applying ...

There is an ongoing debate on how to correct leaf gas-exchange measurements for the unavoidable diffusion leakage that occurs when measurements are done in non-ambient CO(2) -concentrations. In this study we present a theory on how the CO(2) diffusion gradient over the gasket is affected by leaf mediated pores (LMP) ...

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of nasopharyngeal bacterial colonisation (NPBC) patterns in young Tanzanian HIV-exposed infants and to analyse the influence of maternal NPBC and of the infant's HIV status on the NPBC pattern. METHODS: Longitudinal cohort study of neonates born to HIV-infected mothers visiting Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Tanzania, ...

We present the results of pump-probe experiments on multilayer graphene samples performed in a wide spectral range, namely from the near infrared (photon energy 1.5 eV) to the terahertz (photon energy 8 meV) spectral range. In the near infrared, exciting carriers and probing at higher photon energies provides direct evidence for a ...

[(99m)Tc(CO)(3)](+)-6-[N-(2-dipicolyl)amino]hexanoic acid () and [(99m)Tc(CO)(3)](+)-11-[N-(2-dipicolyl)amino]undecanoic acid () were prepared by incorporating [(99m)Tc-(CO)(3)](+) into 6-[N-(2-dipicolyl)amino]hexanoic acid and 11-[N-(2-dipicolyl)amino]undecanoic acid, respectively. The overall radiochemical yield of and was from 79.7% to 91.3% and radiochemical purity after HPLC purification was more than 94%. The resulting complexes were found to be chemically stable when ...

Abstract Objective. To evaluate the capability of soft laser light to penetrate blood, serum, gingival connective tissue and pure collagen type I. Materials and methods. A 1:1 mixture of methylene blue (MB) and diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) was irradiated for 60 s with a diode laser (670 nm, 0.3 W) through blood, ...

In the present paper, we ascertain two novel findings on chiral-selective binding / separating of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with a non-aromatic polymer, poly(dialkylsilane)(PSi). PSi is a typical σ-conjugated polymer, composed of alkyl side chains attached to the silicon (Si)-catenated main chain. First, PSi with linear alkyl side chains showed ...

A transparent MoS(2)-graphene nanosheet (GNS) nanocomposite counter electrode (CE) was incorporated into a Pt-free dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC). The DSC assembled with the transparent MoS(2)-GNS CE therefore exhibited an impressive photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 5.81%, up to 93% of that obtained using the conventional Pt CE (6.24%).

In six German Shepherds dogs, GnRH agonist implants (Deslorelin) were inserted subcutaneously one month after histological confirmation of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Prostatic volume (PV), characteristics of ejaculate, serum testosterone concentrations and Doppler parameters of prostatic and subcapsular arteries were detected at different time intervals, for 6 month. The prostatic volume ...

We surveyed patients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland to examine information requirements and expectations of patients with prostate cancer. Patients were identified via their healthcare teams or via existing databases and interviewed by telephone, or in face-to-face interviews (Italy). Survey questions were either multiple choice or rank-based, and ...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the methodological quality of diagnostic accuracy studies on coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography using the QUADAS (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies included in systematic reviews) tool. METHODS: Each QUADAS item was individually defined to adapt it to the special requirements of studies on coronary CT angiography. ...

During retinal surgical treatment often the gel-like vitreous humor is replaced by aqueous substitutes. A two-dimensional computational model is developed for simulating transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) process in a human eye under post-retinal treatment. The model accounts for natural convection in vitreous humor and the choroidal blood perfusion. Time dependent and ...

PURPOSE: This paper reports the external validation of a recently developed instrument, the Discharge of Hip fracture Patients score (DHP) that predicts discharge location on admission in patients living in their own home prior to hip fracture surgery. METHODS: The DHP (maximum score 100 points) was applied to 125 hip ...

In a linear mixed effects model, it is common practice to assume that the random effects follow a parametric distribution such as a normal distribution with mean zero. However, in the case of variable selection, substantial violation of the normality assumption can potentially impact the subset selection and result in ...

Background/Aims: We hypothesized an advantage of using carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) over carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in postoperative surveillance of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with elevated preoperative serum CA19-9 (PreCA19-9). Methodology: We analyzed 197 CRC patients with elevated PreCA19-9 (>=37U/mL). Serum levels of CEA and CA19-9 were monitored postoperatively, according to ...

Phenelzine (PZ) is a scavenger of the lipid peroxidation (LP)-derived reactive aldehyde 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) due to its hydrazine functional group, which can covalently react with 4-HNE. In this study, we first examined the ability of PZ to prevent the respiratory depressant effects of 4-HNE on normal isolated brain cortical mitochondria. ...

Identification of high-risk prognostic markers for stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) is currently a big challenge. CD133 is one of the most commonly used CRC stem cell markers. However, its specificity is controversial. Recent studies have demonstrated that the AC133 epitope of CD133, not the CD133 protein, is responsible for ...

The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes star ratings reflecting Medicare Advantage plan quality to inform enrollment decisions. To assess the association between publicly reported Medicare Advantage plan quality ratings and enrollment. Cross-sectional study of 2011 Medicare Advantage enrollments among 952,352 first-time enrollees and 322,699 enrollees switching plans. ...

Amide-linked tripyridine derivatives , with a para-substituent, and , with a meta-substituent, were gelated in water or water-DMSO. The gelation capabilities of and were attributed to the cooperative effects of mainly CH-π and π-π stacking or strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions between the amide groups. The fluorescence properties of gels ...

Wnt proteins play a critical role in central nervous system development and have been implicated in several neuropathologies, including spinal cord injury (SCI). Ryk, a non-conventional Wnt receptor, regulates axonal regeneration after SCI, although its expression pattern in this neuropathology remains unclear. Thus, we sought to define the spatio-temporal and ...

Gastrointestinal cancers are frequently associated with chronic inflammation and excessive secretion of IL-6 family cytokines, which promote tumorigenesis through persistent activation of the GP130/JAK/STAT3 pathway. Although tumor progression can be prevented by genetic ablation of Stat3 in mice, this transcription factor remains a challenging therapeutic target with a paucity of ...

Transgenic rice expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxins (Bt rice) for pest control is considered an important solution to food security in China. However, tests for potential effects on non-target soil organisms are required for environmental risk assessment. The soil collembolan Folsomia candida L. (Collembola: Isotomidae) is a potential non-target arthropod ...

BACKGROUND: Many studies have investigated the effect of medication review on a variety of outcomes, but the elements of the interventions have been quite diverse. Moreover, implementation rates of recommendations also vary widely between studies. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate how the extent of collaboration between ...

BACKGROUND: We recently demonstrated the bitter taste receptor T2R38 upregulates sinonasal mucosal innate defense in response to gram-negative quorum-sensing molecules through increased nitric oxide production and mucociliary clearance. T2R38 was initially identified in the quest to understand the variability in bitter taste perception to the compound phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and demonstrated ...

BACKGROUND: Chronic plaque psoriasis is frequently associated to metabolic disorders including obesity. Anti-TNF-alpha treatments can induce body weight increase in patients with psoriasis. Information on the effect of ustekinumab on the body weight is not available. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether therapy with ustekinumab is associated with changes in body mass ...

OBJECTIVE: This case series documents the response of nine individuals with glucocorticoid-refractory Graves' orbitopathy (GO) to B cell depletion therapy with rituximab (RTX). CONTEXT: Graves' disease (GD) is one of the commonest autoimmune conditions and is frequently associated with inflammatory changes around the eyes (GO). GO frequently results in significant ...

Super-resolution far-field imaging has recently emerged as a novel strategy for imaging interactions between plasmonic nanostructures and single molecules with spatial resolution <5 nm. In these experiments, the emission centroid of a diffraction-limited spot is modeled as a two-dimensional Gaussian, allowing the position of an emitter to be determined with ...

Background/Aims: Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been considered to be relevant to an increased risk of several different types of cancers. However, its relationship with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC) remains unclear. Methodology: To investigate a quantitative assessment of this relationship, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between diabetes and the ...

Benzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-b]pyridine (BTP) was newly developed as an electron deficient moiety for high triplet energy materials and two BTP derivatives with the BTP and carbazole groups were synthesized as high triplet energy bipolar host materials. The BTP derivatives were effective as the host materials for green and blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting ...

Apical periodontitis (AP) is an inflammatory lesion around the apex of a tooth caused by bacterial infection of the pulp canal system. AP appears radiographically as a radiolucent periapical lesion (RPL). The elective treatment for teeth with AP is root canal treatment (RCT). No study is available about the frequency ...

Cell transplantation is one strategy for encouraging regeneration after spinal cord injury and a range of cell types have been investigated for their repair potential. However, variations in study design complicate determination of which cells are most effective. In this study we have carried out a direct comparison of the ...

The development of new massive sequencing techniques has now made it possible to significantly reduce the time and costs of whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Although WGS will soon become a routine testing tool, new ethical issues have surfaced. In light of these concerns, a systematic review of papers published by expert ...

Cultural adaptation is an important step in the process of implementing health promotion interventions that, having been proven to be effective in one culture, are being applied in another. This study describes the results of a formative investigation to culturally adapt a STI/HIV risk reduction intervention for use in St. ...

The endosperm plays an important role in seed formation and germination, especially in rice (Oryza sativa). We used a high-throughput sequencing technique (RNA-Seq) to reveal the molecular mechanisms involved in rice endosperm development. Three cDNA libraries were taken from rice endosperm at 3, 6 and 10 days after pollination (DAP), which ...

This study represents the first longitudinal, within-subject (1) H MRS investigation of the developing rat brain spanning infancy, adolescence and early adulthood. We obtained neurometabolite profiles from a voxel located in a central location of the forebrain, centered on the striatum, with smaller contributions for the cortex, thalamus and hypothalamus, ...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies comparing unipolar and bipolar hemiarthroplasty for treatment of displaced intracapsular femoral neck fractures in elderly patients have often lacked methodological power and yielded conflicting clinical results. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes from each implant in a randomized cohort of elderly patients ...

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the relationship between weakness and bioimpedance analysis (BIA)-derived phase angle in a population of untreated cancer patients with fatigue. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated 41 treatment-naive cancer patients of several origins that presented with performance status 1-2, weight loss >5 % in the last 6 months, and ...

Elk-1 is a member of the E-twenty-six (ETS) domain superfamily of transcription factors and has been traditionally associated with mitogen-induced immediate early gene transcription upon phosphorylation by mitogen activated protein kinases (ERK/MAPK). Elk-1 is not only upregulated but also phosphorylated in brain tumour cells. However, in this study, we show ...

Users of commonly employed actuarial risk assessment instruments (ARAIs) hope to generate numerical probability statements about risk; however, ARAI manuals often do not explicitly report data that are essential for understanding the classification accuracy of the instruments. In addition, ARAI manuals often contain data that have the potential for misinterpretation. ...

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is defined as the involuntary retrograde passage of gastric contents into the esophagus with or without regurgitation or vomiting. It is a frequently experienced physiologic condition occurring several times a day, mostly postprandial and causes no symptoms. These infants are also called 'happy spitters'. GER disease (GERD) ...

The inherent complexity of aging-related traits can temper progress in unraveling the genetic origins of healthspan. We focus on two generations in the Framingham Heart Study, the original (FHS) and offspring (FHSO) cohorts, to determine whether aging-related processes in changing environments can substantially impact the role of lipid-related genes discovered ...

PNAS-4, a novel pro-apoptotic gene, was activated during the early response to DNA damage. Previous studies have shown that hPNAS-4 can inhibit tumor growth when over-expressed in ovarian cancer cells. However, the underlying action mechanism remains elusive. In this work, we found that hPNAS-4 expression was significantly increased in SKOV3 ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] play important roles in the regulation of lipid metabolism. Although dyslipidemia is associated with insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), there are limited data available regarding the relationship of LPL and 25(OH)D to IR and T2D at a ...

We assessed the feasibility of a breath test to detect women's single or concurrent use of vaginal products by adding ester taggants to vaginal gel and condom lubricant. Healthy non-pregnant women were enrolled into a two-day cohort (N = 13) and a single-day cohort (N = 12) in San Francisco. Within each cohort, women ...

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to identify brain atrophy specific for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and to evaluate the discriminatory performance of this specific atrophy between DLB and Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 60 DLB and 30 AD patients who had undergone 3D T1-weighted MRI. ...

Conservation programmes aim at minimising the loss of genetic diversity, which allows populations to adapt to potential environmental changes. This can be achieved by calculating how many offspring every individual should contribute to the next generation to minimise global coancestry. However, an undesired consequence of this strategy is that it ...

Droplet interface bilayers are a convenient tool to produce and explore lipid membrane properties. We discuss why their formation time in microfluidics can be three to six orders of magnitude faster compared to conventional bulk settings.

The Ag-mediated electrophilic [(18)F]fluorination of an arylboronic ester is reported. This new radiochemical transformation uses [(18)F]selectfluor bis(triflate) in acetone. The process gave 6-[(18)F]fluoro-l-DOPA with a RCY of 19 ± 12% and a specific activity of 2.6 ± 0.3 GBq μmol(-1).