OBJECTIVE: To examine the feasibility of ultrasonographic imaging of foetal tympanic rings (TR). METHODS: An observational cohort study of eighty healthy foetuses of low-risk pregnancies divided into four gestational age subgroups (12(th) week, 16(th) week, 23(rd) week, and 32(nd) week) was performed. Each subgroup comprised twenty sequential foetal sonographic examinations. ...

We collected and analyzed the time to detection (TTD) of blood cultures in the BacT/Alert automated system from 2002 to 2007. Among the 10,893 monomicrobial isolates from a total of 133,735 blood culture sets, the recoveries of aerobic bottles were compared with those of anaerobic bottles in this study. Significantly ...

PURPOSE: To assess the effects of reduced scan time in dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) of breast for the evaluation of pharmacokinetic parameters (K(trans) , v(e) , and k(ep) ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: High temporal resolution DCE-MRI was performed for calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters (K(trans) , v(e) , and ...

This review highlights the growing importance of protein epitope mimetics in the discovery of new biologically active molecules and their potential applications in drug and vaccine research. The focus is on folded β-hairpin mimetics, which are designed to mimic β-hairpin motifs in biologically important peptides and proteins. An ever-growing number ...

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) clusters in families, but the familial risk of VTE has only been determined in first-degree relatives. This nationwide study aimed to determine the familial risk of VTE in first-, second- and third-degree relatives of affected individuals. The Swedish Multi-Generation Register was linked to Hospital Discharge Register data ...

In this cross-sectional study, the strengths, challenges and current status of baccalaureate nursing education in Ghana were described using a descriptive design. The World Health Organization Global Standards for the Initial Education of Nurses and Midwives were used as the organizing framework, with baseline data on the status of nursing ...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore which medications Australian nurse practitioners most frequently prescribe. BACKGROUND: Although nurse practitioners in Australia have prescriptive authority, little is known about which specific medications nurse practitioners are prescribing and how frequently they do so. DESIGN: Descriptive electronic survey. METHODS: A total of 209 nurse practitioners ...

Population viability analysis (PVA) is widely used to assess the extinction risk of threatened species and to evaluate different management strategies. However, conventional PVA neglects important biotic interactions and therefore can fail to identify important threatening processes. We designed a new PVA approach that includes species interactions explicitly by networking ...

Renal transplantation is the best option for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), but its half-life is limited to a decade. Clinical and histological markers measurable within the first year of transplantation can be used to predict its outcome. These markers are important for selecting kidneys for transplantation, for identifying ...

We are exposed to millions of microbial and dietary antigens via the gastrointestinal tract, which likely plays a key role in type 1 diabetes (T1D). We differentiated the effects of these two major environmental factors on gut immunity and T1D. Diabetes-prone BioBreeding (BBdp) rats were housed in specific pathogen-free (SPF) ...

Eosinophils are multi-functional leukocytes that play a role in inflammatory processes including allergy and infection. Although bone marrow (BM) inflammatory cells are the main source of eosinophil/basophil (Eo/B) differentiation-inducing cytokines, a recent role has been demonstrated for cytokine induction through Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated signalling in BM progenitors. Since we have ...

Dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1) and dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) are essential for the formation of dentin. Previous in vitro studies have indicated that DMP1 might regulate the expression of DSPP during dentinogenesis. To examine whether DMP1 controls dentinogenesis through the regulation of DSPP in vivo, we crossbred transgenic mice expressing ...

Extensive individual variation in spatial behaviour is a common feature among species that exhibit migratory life cycles. Nowhere is this more evident than in salmonid fishes; individual fish may complete their entire life cycle in freshwater streams, others may migrate variable distances at sea and yet others limit their migrations ...

Health anxiety has been infrequently examined in individuals with diabetes. In this study, individuals with Type 1 or 2 diabetes (n = 414) completed questionnaires assessing health anxiety and related constructs. Elevated health anxiety was reported by 24.1 percent of the sample and was greater among younger individuals, females, unmarried ...

Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a monogenic disorder characterised by autosomal dominant inheritance of young-onset (typically <25 years), non-insulin dependent diabetes due to defective insulin secretion. MODY is both clinically and genetically heterogeneous with mutations in at least ten genes. Mutations in the HNF1A gene encoding hepatocyte nuclear ...

The list of signals sent by an injured organ to systemic circulation, so-called danger signals, is growing to include multiple metabolites and secreted moieties, thus revealing a highly complex and integrated network of interlinked systemic proinflammatory and proregenerative messages. Emerging new data indicate that, apart from the well established local ...

This paper reports the experimental and theoretical investigations of two trigonal bipyramidal Ni(II) complexes, the [Ni(Me6tren)Cl](ClO4) 1 and [Ni(Me6tren)Br](Br) 2. High Field, High frequency Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy performed on a single crystal of the [Ni(Me6tren)Cl](ClO4) 1 shows a giant uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with an experimental Dexp value (energy difference ...

Toxic thyroid adenomas or functioning nodules are rare in children and adolescents, representing less than 3% of all causes of hyperthyroidism (1). Somatic gain-of-function mutations of the TSHr gene (accession number NM_00369) have been identified as a cause of toxic thyroid adenomas and functioning nodules of toxic multinodular goitre in ...

Piscirickettsia salmonis is the aetiological agent of piscirickettsiosis, a disease which affects a variety of teleost species and that is particularly severe in salmonid fish. Bacterial-free supernatants, obtained from cultures of three isolates of Piscirickettsia salmonis, were inoculated in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., and in three continuous cell lines ...

The epidemiological situation of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is uncertain in Nigeria, where the disease is endemic, and the majority of outbreaks are unreported. Control measures for FMD in Nigeria are not being implemented due to the absence of locally produced vaccines and an official ban on vaccine importation. This ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Accurate diagnosis is pertinent to any disease control programme. If Eastern Africa is to work towards control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) using the Progressive Control Pathway for FMD (PCP-FMD) as a tool, then the capacity of national reference laboratories (NRLs) mandated to diagnose FMD should match this task. ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of early fetoscopic tracheal occlusion (22-24 weeks) on pulmonary response and neonatal survival in extremely severe isolated CDH. METHODS: Multicenter study involving fetuses with extremely severe CDH (lung-to-head ratio <0.70, liver herniation into the thoracic cavity, no other detectable anomalies). Between August 2010 and December ...

This study was designed to determine the effects of Compound A on spermatogenesis including assessment of inhibin B levels and on fertility in the male rat over a 15 to 19 weeks treatment and a 19 weeks treatment-free period in control and 30, 60, and 180 mg/kg dose groups (n = ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Previous studies in basal angiosperms have provided insight into the diversity within the angiosperm lineage and helped to polarize analyses of flowering plant evolution. However, there is still not an experimental system for genetic studies among basal angiosperms to facilitate comparative studies and functional investigation. It would be ...

Emotional mimicry is the imitation of the emotional expressions of others. According to the classic view on emotional mimicry (the Matched Motor Hypothesis), people mimic the specific facial movements that comprise a discrete emotional expression. However, little evidence exists for the mimicry of discrete emotions; rather, the extant evidence supports ...

Clinical, in vitro, and experimental animal observations indicate that antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) are pathogenic. The genesis of the ANCA autoimmune response is a multifactorial process that includes genetic predisposition, environmental adjuvant factors, an initiating antigen, and failure of T cell regulation. ANCA activate primed neutrophils (and monocytes) by binding ...

The gut microbiota is implicated in host metabolism and energy regulation. Germ-free (GF) C57BL/6 mice display decreased adiposity, an effect associated with increased intestinal fasting-induced adipose factor (FIAF) and decreased hepatic lipogenesis. However, whether the altered metabolism observed in the absence of gut microbiota extends to other species, commonly used ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The tumor suppressor Rb/E2F regulates gene expression to control differentiation in multiple tissues during development, although how it directs tissue-specific gene regulation in vivo is poorly understood. RESULTS: We determined the genome-wide binding profiles for Caenorhabditis elegans Rb/E2F-like components in the germline, in the intestine and broadly throughout ...

Obesity-induced diabetes is associated with low-grade inflammation in adipose tissue and macrophage infiltration of islets. We show that ablation of Galectin-3, a galactoside-binding lectin, accelerates high-fat diet-induced obesity and diabetes. Obese LGALS3(-/-) mice have increased body weight, amount of total visceral adipose tissue, fasting blood glucose and insulin levels, HOMA-IR ...

During exercise, an old age-associated inability to increase vascular resistance within the intra-abdominal adipose tissue (AT) may compromise the ability to redistribute blood flow. We tested the hypotheses that 1) there would be an elevated perfusion of AT during exercise with old age that was associated with diminished vasoconstrictor responses ...

In the present study, we have developed an in vitro three-dimensional (3D) model to differentiate normal from lung cancer cells in order to study the mechanisms resulting in lung cancer.Using a reconstituted laminin-rich basement membrane (Matrigel), we were able to culture normal human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) and a subset ...

Emotion understanding and theory of mind (ToM) are two major aspects of social cognition in which deaf children demonstrate developmental delays. The current study investigated these social cognition aspects in two subgroups of deaf children-those with cochlear implants who communicate orally (speakers) and those who communicate primarily using sign language ...

The design and application of an effective, new class of multifunctional small molecule inhibitors of amyloid self-assembly are described. Several compounds, based on the diaryl hydrazone scaffold were designed. Forty-four substituted derivatives of this core structure were synthesized using a variety of benzaldehydes and phenylhydrazines and were characterized. The inhibitor ...

The opportunist free-living protists such as Acanthamoeba spp. and Balamuthia mandrillaris have become a serious threat to human life. As most available drugs target functional aspects of pathogens, the ability of free-living protists to transform into metabolically inactive cyst forms presents a challenge in treatment. It is hoped, that the ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Endovascular embolization of wide-neck intracranial aneurysms can be technically challenging, especially when the anatomy is complex. Stent reconstruction of the parent artery is commonly used to treat wide-neck and bifurcated aneurysms. The main objective of this study was to investigate the periprocedural and midterm morbidity and mortality results ...

In photosynthetic oxygen evolution, redox active tyrosine Z (YZ) plays an essential role in proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions. Four sequential photooxidation reactions are necessary to produce oxygen at a Mn(4)CaO(5) cluster. The sequentially oxidized states of this oxygen-evolving cluster (OEC) are called the S(n) states, where n refers to ...

Therapy-related myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myelogenous leukemia (t-MDS/AML) comprise a poor-risk subset of MDS/AML. Large scale mutation profiling efforts in de novo MDS have identified mutations that correlate with clinical features but such mutations have not been investigated in tMDS/AML. Genomic DNA from 38 patient samples was subjected to high ...

Ralstonia pickettii DTP0602 utilizes 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) as its sole source of carbon. The expression of catabolic pathway genes (hadA, hadB and hadC) for 2,4,6-TCP has been reported to be regulated by the LysR-type transcriptional regulator (LTTR), HadR. Generally, coinducers are recognized as being important for the function of LTTRs, and ...

AIM: To compare the effectiveness of alternating pressure air mattresses vs. overlays to prevent pressure ulcers in mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care units. BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers prevention is an important issue in the nursing of critically ill patients. It is not clear whether alternating pressure air mattresses are more ...

AIMS: The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive update on (1) the overall prevalence of cerebral palsy (CP); (2) the prevalence of CP in relation to birthweight; and (3) the prevalence of CP in relation to gestational age. METHOD: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted and ...

OBJECTIVE: Several secreted phospholipases A2 (sPLA2s), including group IIA, III, V, and X, have been linked to the development of atherosclerosis, which led to the clinical testing of A-002 (varespladib), a broad sPLA2 inhibitor for the treatment of coronary artery disease. Group X sPLA2 (Pla2g10) has the most potent hydrolyzing ...

Three-dimensional (3D) information plays an important part in medical and veterinary education. Appreciating complex 3D spatial relationships requires a strong foundational understanding of anatomy and mental 3D visualization skills. Novel learning resources have been introduced to anatomy training to achieve this. Objective evaluation of their comparative efficacies remains scarce in ...

Prior studies have identified two anatomically and neurochemically distinct cellular compartments within the mammalian striatum, termed striosomes and matrix, which express μ-opioid receptors (μOR) and EphA4, respectively. Here we identify and characterize an additional compartment in the rat striatum composed of neurons that express EphA7. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemical ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if a standard complete anatomical fetal survey, as recommended based on ultrasound (US) examination guidelines was feasible using a standardized MRI protocol. METHODS: Based on guidelines for US-based examination, we built up a specific MRI protocol for fetal anatomical survey. This protocol was then prospectively tested in ...

Rationale: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) causes significant morbidity and mortality. Exacerbating factors increasing the risk of ARDS remain unknown. Supplemental oxygen is often necessary in both mild and severe lung disease. Among its potential effects may include augmentation of lung inflammation by inhibiting anti-inflammatory pathways in alveolar macrophages. Objectives: ...

NADH dehydrogenase (complex I) catalyzes the transfer of electrons from NADH to ubiquinone with pumping protons across the mitochondrial inner membrane and produces reactive oxygen species as a major source in mitochondria. A missense mutation in the mitochondrially encoded NADH dehydrogenase 2 (MT-ND2) gene, which could produce a change in ...

In this study, primary murine prostate cancer (PCa) cells were derived using the well-established TRAMP model (transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate). These PCa cells were treated with the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), valproic acid (VPA), and we demonstrated that VPA treatment has an anti-migrative, anti-invasive and anti-proliferative effect on PCa cells. ...

Exercise stresses the pulmonary circulation through increases in cardiac output and left atrial pressure. Invasive as well as non-invasive studies in healthy volunteers show that the slope of mean pulmonary artery pressure-flow relationships ranges from 0.5 to 3 mmHg.L.min-1. The upper limit of normal of mean pulmonary artery pressure at ...

To avoid freezing while overwintering beneath the bark of fallen trees, Dendroides canadensis (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae) larvae produce a family of antifreeze proteins (DAFPs) that are transcribed in specific tissues and have specific compartmental fates. DAFPs and associated thermal hysteresis activity (THA) have been shown previously in hemolymph and midgut fluid, ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Rosette-formation of Plasmodium falciparum parasitized erythrocytes is of importance in the development of severe malaria. The parasite-derived molecule PfEMP1 (Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1), central to rosetting, is suggested to be included in a multimeric vaccine targeting severe disease. METHODS: Three recombinant NTS-DBL1alpha-domains of PfEMP1 were generated ...